'Old man' Kevin de Bruyne still aiming high as Man City face Leipzig in Champions League

How old is ‘old’ for an elite footballer? Kevin de Bruyne has contemplated the question a few times since he turned 31.

There was the interview he gave before the World Cup, where he said his Belgium team had “no chance” in the tournament because they were “too old”. Some of the senior Belgian players discussed the remark with him before exiting the tournament at the group phase.

Then there was his comment to reporters after Manchester City’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace at the weekend: “I’m an old man in this game, I know how it is.”

De Bruyne had come off the bench for the last 11 minutes, the fourth time in nine league matches he had been named among the City substitutes. “Obviously you want to play as much as possible,” he added, “but if you don’t, you do your best for 10 minutes.”

De Bruyne’s best, even with a little less time on the pitch than he has been used to in his eight seasons as serial champion and chief creator at City, is still better than anybody else in English football when it comes to providing goalscoring chances.

Nobody has more assists than his dozen in the Premier League this season. He will have a large say in the next scoring records Erling Haaland collects, too. Of the giant Norwegian’s 34 City goals so far in his first campaign in English football, De Bruyne has directly set up nine.

“I’m not an old man,” De Bruyne clarified yesterday, looking ahead to Tuesday’s Champions League second leg against RB Leipzig, a tie poised at 1-1. “I’m an old man in this game.” He had been aware of some observers wondering if De Bruyne has reached, even passed his peak. “I know how it works, when people talk about you you notice these things a lot more. People talk about form, about how you play.

“I’m a