Pep Guardiola believes Kevin De Bruyne can win the Ballon d’Or if he leads Manchester City to Champions League glory this season.
De Bruyne has been the best player in the Premier League this season and played a huge part in helping City establish a 16-point lead at the top of the table.
The Belgium international is expected to clean up the end of season PFA awards and Guardiola even thinks the 26-year-old could break up Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s strangle hold on the Ballon d'Or.
“No doubt,” The Daily Telegraph quote Guardiola as saying when asked whether De Bruyne could be crowned the best player in the world in his career. “He is not one game like this. It’s the whole season, every three days, playing that way.
“He knows, and everyone knows, to be there with that award you have to win titles. Especially one – the Champions League of course.”
Messi and Ronaldo have shared the last 10 Ballon d’Ors since Kaka was named the best player on the planet in 2007.
However, both players are now the wrong side of 30 and Ronaldo even celebrated his 33rd birthday earlier this month.
Neymar is widely expected to be the first player to break their hold on the trophy, but, at 26, De Bruyne also has a lot of time to make his own case for the gong.
The Belgium international registered a hat-trick of assists in City’s 5-1 win over Leicester at the weekend, meaning he has now set up at least three more goals than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues this season (14).
