After just two years, Antonio Conte recently agreed to a mutual parting of ways with Napoli. This apparently went down very well with Kevin De Bruyne.
With the 2025 Scudetto and a second-place finish this year, Antonio Conte has wrapped up two successful years at SSC Napoli—setting aside an extremely poor Champions League performance (30th place).
Nevertheless, the coach recently agreed with club owner Aurelio de Laurentiis to terminate his contract in order to clear the way for his return to the Italian national team as the apparent top candidate (“If I were the head of the federation, I would consider myself”).
So in Naples, they’ll have to fill the coaching vacancy—possibly with Massimiliano Allegri, who was fired by Milan after just one year. Either way, one player seems happy about Conte’s departure: Kevin De Bruyne.
“We have different ideas about soccer”
The midfielder, who arrived at the foot of Mount Vesuvius a year ago following his emotional departure from Manchester City, has now spoken at length about his time with Conte ahead of the upcoming World Cup with Belgium. It was apparently an unpleasant phase of his career, because, from his perspective, the focus on the game itself had fallen by the wayside.
“Last summer, promises were made that we would play attacking football, but in the end, not much of that happened,” De Bruyne said in an interview with the Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad, giving free rein to his frustration: “Football has to be fun, but unfortunately, that aspect was missing for me. Let’s just put it this way: we have different ideas about football. Under Conte, I was never able to play in my position.”
In the end, the now 34-year-old attacking midfielder, who was sidelined from late October through March due to a protracted thigh injury, made 21 competitive appearances in his first year in Italy (contract through 2027 with an option for 2028). And he still managed to score five goals and provide four assists. But in his view, he could have achieved much more—injury time or not.
“Not exactly thrilling”
“We played very defensively,” De Bruyne added in his criticism of Conte. “If you try to narrowly win every game with a 4-5-1 system, you end up playing a certain style of soccer. At the start of the season, we were even sitting deeper. Our center forward only scored ten goals… so it’s clear that the stats aren’t going to be thrilling.” That’s why, at the end of the day, the veteran comes to exactly this conclusion about his time working with Conte: “We really had different ideas. So am I glad that Conte is gone? For me, it’s a clear yes.”