What could have been for the young Belgian.
Jose Mourinho was never fully convinced by Kevin De Bruyne.
The attacking midfielder had all of three games in his two years at Chelsea – broken up by a loan spell at Werder Bremen – before he was finally sold to Wolfsburg.
Before he made the switch from Chelsea, in January 2014, he could have joined up with Jurgen Klopp. In the summer of 2013, the Liverpool boss was in charge of Borussia Dortmund.
“I had a personal agreement [with Klopp],” De Bruyne told The Telegraph.
“I asked Chelsea to go because I had a good feeling about Dortmund at the time. I had been good in Germany and Klopp really wanted me because [Mario] Gotze went to Bayern Munich. He called me, and said ‘You will be the No 1’ … at a team who had been second in the Bundesliga and in the Champions League final.”
The 24-year-old went to Chelsea boss Mourinho but was told: ‘‘You need to stay and you will get your chance here’.
De Bruyne says Klopp did a magnificent job at Dortmund and believes, with time, he can do the same at Liverpool.
Harking back to the missed opportunity of teaming up with Klopp, the Belgian said, “I fancied it but there was no problem to stay.
“Also in that summer they Chelsea bought two more players in my position [Willian and Andre Schurrle] so you know it was going to be difficult. Even after pre-season I thought maybe this [move to Dortmund] can happen but it didn’t work out that way.”
De Bruyne is now a £55m footballer while Klopp will be trying to do his Manchester City side over at Eastlands this evening. How times change.
