Elliot Anderson names Kevin De Bruyne as inspiration after joining Man City he “always wanted to play like” | OneFootball

Manchester City’s club record £116 million signing Elliot Anderson has revealed that former City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was the player he idolised throughout his rise through Newcastle United’s academy.

The 23-year-old joined Manchester City from Nottingham Forest for £116 million – a record fee for a British player for a brief period – before Chelsea paid £117 million to sign Anderson’s England teammate Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa.

Kevin De Bruyne is widely regarded as one of the finest midfielders in Premier League history and 12 months on from the Belgian’s departure from the Etihad Stadium, Anderson has paid tribute to a player widely admired by the new and upcoming generations of midfielders.

Anderson’s admission that De Bruyne shaped how he approached the game from a young age adds a deeply personal dimension to a signing that director of football Hugo Viana described as the arrival of “one of the outstanding young midfield talents in world football right now”.

De Bruyne’s departure for Napoli last summer left a void in City’s midfield that the club have spent considerable resource addressing – and in Anderson, they may have signed a player who has spent the better part of a decade studying precisely the model they are hoping to replace.

Anderson: To be sat here in the same team De Bruyne was doing it for is so special

Speaking to official Manchester City media, Anderson was open about the player who defined his football education from his early teenage years at Newcastle United.

“I think Kevin De Bruyne is someone I’ve hugely looked up to over the past seven or eight years,” said Manchester City’s club record acquisition.

“As I came through the academy at Newcastle, I always wanted to play like him. I’ve watched him all the time and to be sat here in the same team he was doing it for is so special.”

De Bruyne was defined by his passing range, ability to control tempo and relentless work rate without the ball – qualities that map closely onto what Viana and manager Enzo Maresca identified when deciding to commit £116 million to sign Anderson from Nottingham Forest.

What does Anderson’s De Bruyne admiration tell us about Man City’s midfield future?

Arsenal midfielder and Anderson’s England teammate Declan Rice described City’s new signing as “the engine room” during the FIFA World Cup in North America – the same language opponents and teammates used to describe De Bruyne at his commanding peak for Manchester City during the title-winning years under Pep Guardiola.

That parallel is not lost on those within the club, and it will not be lost on Maresca – a manager who knows Anderson’s qualities intimately and has spoken about inheriting a squad with the right blend of youth and experience to push forward into the next phase of the club’s ambitions.

Whether Anderson can fill the gap left by one of the club’s all-time greats is football’s most unfair question to ask of any new signing. But his own admission that he modelled his game on De Bruyne from an early age suggests he has been studying the right template from the very beginning of his career in the game.