• Premier League

De Bruyne: No joy playing for Mourinho

ESPN staff
January 19, 2014
De Bruyne excited ahead of Bundesliga return

Kevin De Bruyne has taken a parting shot at Jose Mourinho by insisting he "lost his joy" playing for Chelsea.

De Bruyne joined Wolfsburg for £21 million earlier this week, having joined for £7 million two years ago before going on loan to Werder Bremen last season.

And he revealed that Mourinho's public criticism of him in a press conference before Chelsea's Champions League match away to Steaua Bucharest had been the tipping point for his career at the club.

"I didn't leave Chelsea because I have to go to the World Cup but just because I lost my joy," De Bruyne told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

"It's a pity he told a press conference that I wasn't doing well on the training pitch. That's not me. I'm always a player who gives the full 100 per cent in training.

"Those remarks created a wrong image. At the end of December I had a chat with Mourinho. He told me things about competition, training hard and there's always a chance that you will play. And he told me he wasn't keen to let me go on loan, saying: 'You're a good player'. But what could I do more?"

De Bruyne, 22, made just nine appearances for Chelsea this season. He added: "After the press conference in Bucharest I started training harder, even on my days off. I lost three kilos and two percent fat - although we could get everything at the club: Coke, chocolate. My situation has never changed. That's why I asked him: 'Please let me go.'

"In the summer he [Mourinho] convinced me to stay, although there was a nice bid from Dortmund on the table. I also talked to Atletico Madrid. It was a good option."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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