Pep Guardiola blocked Bayern Munich transfer to send Manchester City legend to the Etihad Stadium

Manchester City may have secured the signing of Kevin De Bruyne from VfL Wolfsburg in 2015 in-part thanks to the efforts of Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich.

De Bruyne has revolutionised Manchester City’s squad since joining the team almost 10 years ago, staking a strong claim for being the greatest midfielder to ever grace the English game, even despite his early struggles at Chelsea.

City were convinced of De Bruyne’s talents irrespective of his Stamford Bridge problems, and announced the arrival of the Belgian on a six-year contract for a then club-record fee of £55 million.

Such a transfer fee made him the second most expensive transfer in British football history, but De Bruyne has certainly repaid the faith shown by Manchester City officials at the time – and perhaps the faith also shown by Pep Guardiola.

Speaking on a new edition of The Denilson Show podcast, former Manchester City captain Fernandinho provided a fascinating insight into the process that ultimately saw the Etihad club claim the services of Kevin De Bruyne, ahead of the likes of Bayern Munich in particular.

“He (Pep Guardiola) was at Bayern and (Kevin) De Bruyne was at Wolfsburg. The Bayern scouting department says, ‘We are looking at this kid, what do you think about bringing him here?”, Fernandinho revealed.

“And Pep says ‘No, no, no, I don’t want him, I don’t think he’ll fit into our team.’ A year passes, De Bruyne goes to Manchester City. Another year passes, Guardiola arrives at City. Got it? The guy knew he was going to City and sent De Bruyne there.”

Kevin De Bruyne has since gone on to register over 365 appearances for the reigning Treble winners, scoring a staggering 98 goals from an attacking midfield role and claim a total of 14 trophies in the process.

There has however been some level of uncertainty over De Bruyne’s longer-term future, with recent claims of growing interest from the Saudi Arabian billions and the middle-eastern game’s intent to make the Belgian their new poster boy of the game.

However, De Bruyne’s priority would likely be a contract renewal at Manchester City, should officials within the City Football Academy look to open up contractual negotiations with the 32-year-old in the coming months.