New picture emerges of Kevin De Bruyne on Arsenal trial

Former Hale End winger Sanchez Watt shared a cheeky post on social media ahead of the Gunners’ weekend clash with Manchester City, showing Kevin De Bruyne in an Arsenal shirt.

Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Ahead of Arsenal’s game against Manchester City on Sunday, one player the Gunners will be glad not to be facing is Kevin De Bruyne. The midfielder has appeared against Arsenal 22 times, scoring eight and assisting five in those matches, before leaving for Napoli.

Yet it all could have gone very differently for De Bruyne’s playing career, as evidenced by a post by former Gunner Sanchez Watt on social media on Sunday.

Watt shared a picture of himself with the Arsenal squad many years earlier, with De Bruyne also featuring (bottom row, third from the right):

Photo via Sanchez Watt on Twitter

The photo confirms claims by former Arsenal assistant academy manager Roy Massey, who had revealed in 2023 that De Bruyne spent time on a trial with the Gunners.

“We knew his mum who was looking after us when we went to Genk to play in a tournament,” Massey explained. “She said ‘Oh, my lad Kevin is an Arsenal fan’ and she was a fan herself so we got on very well.

“She saw us the following year as well and when we were leaving she said ‘Roy, we’re coming over to London, could my lad come and do some training with you during the holidays?’ I said of course and he came along for a week.

“We saw him play and he did well, but we had stronger players. Don’t forget, you come from Belgium, and you’re only 11 or 12 years of age, you come to Arsenal and you’re overwhelmed by the occasion and all the players in training.

“They were already confident and they were buzzing, and they were in their own environment. It was difficult for him to show that sort of ability that might take him to being a world class player.

“We told his mum that he’d done very well and wished him well and maybe we’d see how he gets on in the future.”

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

We can probably cut the Arsenal staff some slack for not immediately identifying that a pre-teen De Bruyne was set for big things, considering Chelsea had him for a year and a half between the ages of 21 and 22 and still didn’t think he was worth keeping.

It was only after that spell with Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga that it became clear that the Belgian midfielder would be a star, at which point it was much too late for Arsenal.

By then Manchester City were happy to pay a club-record fee for his signature, so that’s where he went.