As a young child growing up in Belgium, Kevin De Bruyne once told a local television reporter on camera that his favourite team was Liverpool, and that his favourite player was Michael Owen.
He repeated that in 2019, in an interview with Match of the Day magazine. Family members living in England supported Liverpool, so it was a natural choice. Owen, meanwhile, won the Ballon d’Or in 2001 when an impressionable De Bruyne was 10-years-old.
