Kevin De Bruyne becomes the top Champions League assister of the decade | OneFootball

Kevin De Bruyne delivered his first major performance for Napoli in the  ChampionsLeague on Wednesday evening.

His home debut resulted in a synergy with on-loan Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund which led to the former City man being crowned the Belgian as the top assister in the Champions League over the last decade.

In the match against Sporting, De Bruyne provided two assists to the Danish striker and led the team to a 2-1 victory. With these two assists, the midfielder reached 26 goal assists, taking the lead in the ranking for the last ten years.

Before this week of fixtures, De Bruyne was tied with Kylian Mbappé, both with 24 assists. So while the Frenchman climbed the historic scorers' ranking with three goals, he did not advance in the assist competition, unlike De Bruyne.

Beyond the two players who continue competing in this season's Champions League, the ranking of the decade's top assisters includes Neymar (23), Joshua Kimmich (23), Angel Di Maria (22), and Vinicius Júnior (21).

At 34, De Bruyne is looking for a fresh start this season after ending his time in the Premier League. During his time with City, the midfielder left as the second-highest assister in Premier League history, with 119 goal assists, behind only Ryan Giggs, who has 162.

The Belgian was also just the fifth player to surpass a century of assists in the English League, alongside Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, and Cesc Fàbregas.

With 236 career assists, De Bruyne is chasing new records as a provider, and at the start of his journey with Napoli, he has found in Hojlund a new partner to try and replicate the successful partnership previously formed with Erling Haaland.