Skip to content
Kevin De Bruyne on first day of Napoli pre-season training, July 15, 2025.
Kevin De Bruyne warned his future is in doubt and did not hold back on his frustration with Antonio Conte at Napoli. ‘We have very different visions of football. I’m happy he left.’
The former Manchester City hero was a free agent when he agreed the transfer to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last summer.
He didn’t get much time to relish the opportunity, suffering a serious thigh injury in late October that ruled him out until March.
The Belgium international eventually made 21 competitive appearances for Napoli, with five goals and four assists, but never quite bonded with his coach.
Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad ahead of the World Cup, De Bruyne revealed just how bad his rapport with Conte was.
De Bruyne did not get along with Conte
“Obviously it was difficult for me because Conte has a very different vision of football to mine. In truth, I never had the opportunity to play in my preferred position.
“In any case, I always tried to give my all for the team.”
De Bruyne vented his frustration with Conte and the often defensive approach he took to games.
“We played very defensively. If you try to win every game by a one-goal margin with a 4-5-1 formation, you play a certain type of football. At the start of the season, we sat back even deeper.
“Our centre-forward scored just 10 goals, so you know the statistics are not going to be great…”
When he was asked if he was happy that Conte had left Napoli, De Bruyne did not hold back.
“For me, yes. As far as I am concerned, he was not obliged to stay. There were promises made last summer on the way that we would be playing, but at the end of the day not much of it happened.
“I found that a pity. Football needs to be enjoyable, and unfortunately I found that aspect lacking. There’s no point beating around the bush, we have different visions of football. I never got to play in my position under Conte.”
When it comes to his future, even without Conte still at the helm, De Bruyne is not making any promises.
“I still have a year left on my contract, but I want to talk about it. There was a lot of talk last year of how we’d play and what we would do, but none of it happened.”
Considering the top candidate to take over at Napoli is Max Allegri, who if anything is even more defensively-minded than Conte, we could see De Bruyne walking away.
