Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher disagree on Man City’s ‘greatest ever' player

Jamie Carragher has backed Kevin De Bruyne to go down as Manchester City’s best ever player.

The Belgian scored the only goal in City's win over Atletico in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday. He played an instrumental role throughout the match to help unlock a deep-lying Atletico backline.

The goal was De Bruyne's first in this year’s competition and takes his tally to 13 this season across all competitions. De Bruyne is three games away from reaching 300 appearances for City — in which time he has netted 80 goals and provided 115 assists.

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Carragher believes the 30-year-old is the currently the best midfielder in the world and will go down as Manchester City’s most hailed hero in their history. He told CBS Sports: “For me, he’s the best midfield player in the world.

“He’s an absolute joy, I’d imagine. Even off the pitch, in interviews, he comes across very humble, he doesn’t miss games, his quality is there week-in-week-out. I think he’ll go down as Manchester City’s greatest ever player.”

Fellow pundit and ex-City defender Micah Richards was hesitant to agree with that particular claim, although said he also believes De Bruyne is the greatest midfielder in the world right now.

“If he brings the Champions League home, I would probably agree with that,” he said. “If he stays at the same level and they don’t bring it home... I would say a David Silva... a Yaya Toure."

Carragher rebuffed Richards’ argument, saying: “Kevin De Bruyne is the best player in the world in his position. David Silva was never the best player in the world in his position, never. Kevin De Bruyne will score more goals and get more