{"id":458376,"date":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458376\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:30:09","slug":"football-friends-kevin-de-bruyne-leading-napolis-bid-to-sign-close-mate-raheem-sterling-following-chelsea-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458376\/","title":{"rendered":"Football friends! Kevin De Bruyne leading Napoli’s bid to sign close mate Raheem Sterling following Chelsea exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a 2019 ghost-written article for The Players’ Tribune<\/a>, De Bruyne explained how he and Sterling formed a friendship after arriving at City together in the summer of 2015 with their reputations undermined by the media.<\/p>\n

De Bruyne said: “I didn’t think he’d be a bad guy, really. But the tabloids were always claiming that he was arrogant.<\/p>\n

“Raheem and I have this strong connection, because we arrived at City around the same time, and there was a lot of negativity about us in the press.<\/p>\n

“They said I was “the Chelsea reject.” They said Raheem was this flashy guy who left Liverpool for money. They said we were difficult characters.<\/p>\n

“Of course, when you read this stuff about yourself, you think, ‘Me? I’m not difficult. This is ridiculous. These people don’t even know me!’ But honestly, when you read about other players, it influences the way you think. You can’t help it.<\/p>\n

“Then I got to City and I actually met Raheem, and we’d talk a bit after training, and I thought, ‘Wait, this guy seems really cool? What’s the story here?’<\/p>\n

“Truthfully, I don’t have many close friends – inside or outside of football. It takes me a really long time to open up to people. But over time, I got closer to Raheem, because our sons were born around the same time, so they would always play together.<\/p>\n

“I really got to know Raheem, and I recognised what a smart and genuine person he is. He couldn’t be more different from what the tabloids were saying.<\/p>\n

“This is the real truth: Raheem is one of the nicest, most humble guys I’ve met in football.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a 2019 ghost-written article for The Players’ Tribune, De Bruyne explained how he and Sterling formed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,6187,596,114911,2354,1614,151955,10815,85,95104,2356],"class_list":["post-458376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chelsea","tag-football","tag-k-de-bruyne","tag-manchester-city","tag-premier-league","tag-r-sterling","tag-serie-a","tag-sports","tag-ssc-napoli","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}