# How Many Ways Can You Rank Kevin De Bruyne?
> One midfielder, fourteen rankings — Kevin De Bruyne wins some and barely registers in others. A tour of how the same player changes with every question you ask.
*By YPB Team · Published July 22, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/how-many-ways-to-rank-kevin-de-bruyne*
---
Kevin De Bruyne — one midfielder, fourteen very different rankings. Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Kevin De Bruyne was a Chelsea reject who became Bundesliga Player of the Year, then
won six Premier League titles and a Champions League at Manchester City before
leaving on a free for Napoli — and at 35 he drove Belgium to a 2026 World Cup
quarter-final in what was almost certainly his last one. That is a lot of ways to
measure one footballer. Below he turns up in fourteen rankings — sometimes at the
very top, sometimes nowhere near it — each a different way of asking the same
question: how good is Kevin De Bruyne, really?
> The catch is that the answer keeps changing. Pick a different list, and he becomes
> a different player.
## The best Belgian of the golden generation
Start where his case is strongest. Hazard had the dribbling, Courtois the saves,
Lukaku the goals — but De Bruyne was the one who made Belgium's best-ever side tick
across a decade and three World Cups. National-hero territory.
National-hero territory — the leader of Belgium's golden generation. Play it →
## The best Manchester City player of all time
Ten years, 108 goals, 177 assists and six league titles make him a genuine club
great. But Agüero has the most iconic goal in the club's history and Silva ran the
midfield before him — so even here, at the club he defined, it's an argument.
His defining club — and still an argument at the very top. Play it →
## The best playmaker in Premier League history
Narrow the question to pure creation and this is the one he can actually win. He
holds a share of the single-season assist record and set up more goals than anyone
in his decade. Bergkamp and Silva push him, but this is his lens.
The lens he can actually win — the assist king of his era. Play it →
## The best midfielder in Premier League history
Widen it from "playmaker" to "midfielder" and the picture changes. Now Gerrard,
Lampard, Scholes and Keane crowd the top, and the man who wins the creativity vote
has to fight for a place in the conversation.
One word wider, and the all-time greats crowd back in. Play it →
## The greatest Premier League player of all time
Open it up to every position and every era and he becomes one strong name among
many. Strikers who broke scoring records and defenders who never lost now compete
for the same top spots — and the midfielder slides down the list.
Every position competes now — a name among many, not the name. Play it →
## The best European midfielder of all time
Zoom out to the whole continent's history and the giants arrive — Zidane, Iniesta,
Xavi, Matthäus. Against that company a brilliant modern creator drifts toward the
middle of the pack.
Against the continent's whole history, he slides toward the middle. Play it →
## The best midfielder in Bundesliga history
Easy to forget he was built in Germany. Before England knew him he was Bundesliga
Player of the Year at Wolfsburg — a reminder that his breakout happened a long way
from Manchester.
A reminder he was Player of the Year here before England knew him. Play it →
## The best free-kick taker in football history
Change the skill and watch him fall. He is a fine dead-ball striker, but on a list
built for specialists — Juninho, Messi, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos — he is the outsider
who sneaks in near the back.
Among the dead-ball specialists he's an outsider — present, near the back. Play it →
## The best footballer to wear the No. 17 shirt
A ranking built purely on a number, and it's a good one for him. His 17 shares the
list with a young Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy and a Napoli icon in Marek
Hamšík — the club he now calls home.
His actual number — shared with a young Cristiano Ronaldo. Play it →
## The best Serie A signing of 2025
His newest chapter. He turned down richer offers from MLS and Saudi Arabia to join
Napoli on a free — the marquee name in a summer that also brought Modrić, Nkunku and
a wave of new strikers to Italy.
His newest chapter — the marquee free transfer of Italy's summer. Play it →
## The best midfielder at the 2026 World Cup
One last World Cup, and he was still Belgium's creative heart on the run to the
quarter-finals. But Rodri walked off with the Golden Ball and Pedri set the tempo for
the champions — so even at his final tournament he's chasing.
One last World Cup — strong, but Rodri and Pedri set the pace. Play it →
## The best player of the 2026 World Cup
Widen it to the whole tournament and he all but disappears. Rodri, Messi, Mbappé and
a teenage Lamine Yamal own the top of this list; De Bruyne is a small name a long way
down it.
Against the whole tournament's cast, a small name near the bottom. Play it →
## The best player at Euro 2020
It is a recurring theme with the great tournaments: he is always there, rarely the
headline. In a Euro 2020 field stacked with the continent's best, he lands in the
supporting cast once more.
Another stacked field, another supporting-cast finish. Play it →
## The best player Chelsea sold too soon
The unflattering angle he tops — except it flatters him. He barely played before
Chelsea let him go in 2014, then became one of the world's best. On a list of the
ones that got away, he is near the very top.
The one that got away from Stamford Bridge. Play it →
## One player, fourteen answers
Best Belgian ever, or a small name at a World Cup? The assist king, or a mid-table
midfielder? It depends entirely on which question you ask. That's the quiet fun of a
ranking — it freezes one honest opinion, and the next lens gives you a different one.
It's the same trick behind every ranking here — judging things
[two at a time](/articles/what-is-pairwise-comparison).
Got a player who turns up everywhere? Build a ranking and find out where they land.
