KEVIN DE BRUYNE held up his hands and revealed his missus was right all along – and for once he did not mind admitting it.
The Manchester City superstar’s other half Michele told him back in August this was the season he would lift the Champions League.
She knew better than anyone that the 31-year-old has been fighting for the whole of his glittering career to win the big one.
Mrs KdB stuck to her belief throughout the campaign as City went through it unbeaten in Europe.
And she even told him in the build-up to the final against Inter that she was convinced the time had come.
So the Belgian knows he will get a reminder when the treble celebrations are finally over and he goes home to his family.
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He said: “I don’t know why but my wife said in August ‘you’re going to win the Champions League’.
“I’ve no idea why but she always maintained I would. And she said before this game ‘I’m not worried. You’ll be fine, you’ll win it’.
“In the end it’s a little bit of a shame because I have to tell her she was right. So that’s not the best!”
Just like in Porto two years ago, De Bruyne’s appearance in the biggest club fixture of all did not go to plan.
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He was forced off in the first half as the hamstring injury which has been hanging over him for the past few weeks flared up again.
Yet this time it did not matter as he sat doing his post match interviews with the medal he needed to complete his collection around his neck.
He already has five Prem titles and seven domestic cups from his eight years at the Etihad – but this is the one he had been missing.
The former Chelsea man said: “I’ve basically been fighting all my career with my team to win this medal. I still don’t think it defines my career.
“I think it helps – but I don’t judge myself or my career solely on this game.
“I know who I am as a football player and person and I am happy and proud of the person I am and I am satisfied with who I am.
“People can say so much about you but if you’re satisfied with yourself and do what you need to go and give your all you can be proud no matter what. But obviously you want to win.”
De Bruyne struggled to sum up how it felt to finally conquer Europe after so many near misses and disappointments along the way for City.
He said: “Hearing the words Champions League winner sounds good. I don’t know, my head feels a little bit empty for the moment. It’s just amazing, it’s incredible,
“It’s probably both relief and joy because there’s always the pressure when you have never done it to do it and now we have.
“But we’ve not lost one game in the Champions League this season so I think we deserve it.”
City have had two mini celebrations after winning the Prem title and the FA Cup in recent weeks.
But KdB said they would make the most of this one – and deservedly so.
They flew back in to Manchester last night (SUN) and tonight (MON) they will be on an open top bus parade around the streets.
He said: “The season is so long we should just enjoy this moment. With the World Cup in the middle, it’s been such a long season, we’ve played about 60, 70 games each of us.
“We’ve had subdued parties up until now but now we can really enjoy it for a couple of days, as we should.”
The Belgian could miss the start of next season and revealed after the Champions League final he had been nursing himself through the last few weeks of the season.
The 31-year-old hobbled off towards the end of the first half and later claimed his hamstring had ‘snapped’.
A serious hamstring tear means several weeks on the sidelines and the new Prem season is only two months away.
De Bruyne was not surprised by the setback as he revealed he has been nursing himself through the last few weeks of the season.
Asked whether it could be a long term injury, he said: “I’ve no idea. I don’t know what the plan is. I’ll probably take a scan somewhere this week.
“I’ll be out of the national team 100 per cent, I know that, which is a shame because I would have played my 100th game.
“I’ve been struggling for two months, since the Bayern Munich game away.
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“I did what I had to do. Obviously I missed some games but the games like Arsenal and Madrid I managed to do it.
“But I missed I would say a fair amount of games but it was all small ruptures but now I’ve snapped it all the way so I wasn’t able to go on.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk