De Bruyne, the captain who lost the war before fighting

Kevin DeBruyne he did not prevent the inevitable. The internal problems of the Belgian team, which had him as the main protagonist, unleashed misfortune on an already ‘old’ generation, but which also had to aspire to much more than it aspires today. Unfortunately, the sentence was final from the beginning.

Belgium, itself, never stopped being a favourite. In recent times, she was always called to go quite far in the World Cups. In Russia 2018, the Belgian squad even almost reached the final, but France -the champion- prevented it.

There are still many left behind from that team that managed to win the bronze medal four years ago. Hazard, Lukaku, Vertonghen, Witsel, De Bruyne himself… they continue to be the backbone of Belgium. But, of course, most of them are far from their best level and age is already weighing on them.

This was well kept in mind by the Belgian captain from the beginning. Kevin knew that playing the same or better role in Qatar 2022 was going to be much more complicated, even worse with the gray debut that the team had when they beat Canada 1-0 without deserving it in terms of football. But the way he put it was not the best: he gave up the war before fighting.

“There is no possibility (of winning the World Cup), we are too old. I think our opportunity was 2018. We have a good team, but it is getting old. There are good new players, but they are not at the level of others in 2018.”De Bruyne said without mincing words.

His statements did not go down well with his teammates and everything got worse after the defeat against Morocco (0-2). Jan Vertonghen, in fact, took refuge in irony and sarcasm to express his annoyance with his captain.

“I guess we attacked badly (in the match against Morocco), because we are also too old ahead. There are many things that go through my head, things that I should not say outside the locker room.“said the defender.

Subsequently, L’Equipe revealed that there was a brawl in the Belgium dressing room. The harmony was broken. According to the French media, Vertonghen and Eden Hazard argued strongly with Kevin de Bruyne in the dressing room and even Romelu Lukaku had to intervene so that the problem does not escalate.

The tension took hold, then, of the Belgian squad, which took to the field with that adverse environment to fight for the qualification to the round of 16 against Croatia. But things, as expected, did not go well.

Belgium, with its golden generation, the so-called ‘Louis Vuitton’, was left out of the World Cup after the goalless draw against the Croats and Morocco’s victory over Canada (2-1). The deadlock in the first round was irremediable.

There wasn’t much that Roberto Martínez could do, despite having invaluable figures on his squad. There was no peace, there was no connection, there was no union: just what a team needs to fight for glory.