The 26-year-old has established himself as one of the best midfielders in European football and is worth a lot more than the £18 million the Blues received for him from Wolfsburg.
Even the egotistical Jose Mourinho must admit that he made a big mistake by allowing him to leave Stamford Bridge.
While the Portuguese boss didn’t doubt De Bruyne’s ability on the pitch, it was his performances in training that disappointed him. The Special One questioned De Bruyne's commitment in sessions and rarely gave him first-team opportunities.
But the player himself didn’t agree.
And, in an interview earlier this year, De Bruyne explained why he wanted to have public training sessions at Chelsea - so Mourinho couldn’t point any fingers at him in front of the thousands of people watching.
“It is true that he said that in the press, yes,” De Bruyne told France Football on the criticism aimed at him by Mourinho.
“That I wasn't doing what was needed in training. It was easy to say that because there was no-one to check it – the training sessions were closed to the public. But everyone knows I am not like that.
“I never let anyone put me down. I say what I have to say, with respect of course. But at that moment, I couldn't do anything because he would have said I was lying and afterwards he would have used it.
“Did I ask for training to be done in public? I said it, yes, but not to him personally.”
And after securing a massive victory against his former side, De Bruyne revealed that neither he nor Chelsea have any regrets over his departure three years ago.
"I've no regrets over anything that happened," he said.
"I don't think they have regrets -- they've won two league titles since I've been gone, so they've done fairly well.
"That's the way it goes, it's a business. At that point it was a good decision for me to go and maybe for them it was also good to let me go.
"There's no bad feeling at all. It's just part of life and you need to grow up."
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