Guardiola said De Bruyne deserves his own statue outside of the Etihad
“One of the greatest midfielders ever to have played in this country, and I think with Manchester City, there is no doubt,” Guardiola said after De Bruyne announced his departure.
“There’s no doubt he’s one of the greatest for sure because of his consistency in important games, the not important games, being there every three days all the time. There is no doubt.”
De Bruyne’s final season at City has been impacted by injury but it could end on a high with the club through to the FA Cup semi-finals, where they will play Nottingham Forest.
Guardiola said he did not know if De Bruyne would feature in the first 32-team Club World Cup at the end of the season, which runs in the United States from June 13 to July 13, and the Belgian is out of contract until June 30.
The City manager called De Bruyne’s exit a ”sad day” for City and said the club would not have reached the same levels of success without him.
“He gave all of us his humility and with his influence in our success in the last decade, that would have been impossible to imagine without him,” Guardiola said.
