But this does not mean that Kevin De Bruyne forgives Thibault Courtois. After the story of the betrayal, both players got married, but the feud between them remained.

Rivalry with the team’s goalkeeper

Looking at the composition of the Belgian team, it is easy to distinguish the main pillars: Thibault Courtois in goal, Vertonghen and Alderweireld in defense, De Bruyne and Hazard in midfield, and in attack. Lukaku is almost always starting. They seem to understand each other just by looking.

Harder to imagine is the conflict between De Bruyne and Courtois, which is related to love. The story was told by the Man City midfielder himself in his autobiography “Keep It Simple”.

Kevin said that one day, his girlfriend Caroline flew with her friends to Madrid. There she began an affair with Courtois, a goalkeeper then playing for Atlético Madrid.

De Bruyne learned about his girlfriend’s betrayal through a mutual friend who knew about the other relationship and leaked the information to Kevin. Later, Caroline told reporters the reason for the incident: In 2012, De Bruyne also betrayed, but she forgave him.

“I did it for revenge. Thibault Courtois turned out to be more interesting, smarter, you can talk to him about anything,” Karolina Linen said.

The two players clashed many times on the training ground of the national team and that came to the ears of coach Mark Wilmots. After getting to the bottom of the matter, he called Kevin De Bruyne into the room. “In my team you are an important player, and I understand that you and Courtois cannot play together,” the coach said. “If you want, I can kick him out of the national team.”

But Kevin refused. “Whatever the reason, I have no right to decide Courtois’ fate. He is a good goalkeeper and deserves to play for the national team,” he wrote in his autobiography.

But this does not mean that De Bruyne forgives Courtois. After the story of the betrayal, both players got married, but the feud between them remained. When asked what he thought about Thibault Courtois’ move to Real Madrid, Kevin responded with extreme harshness.

“I’m glad he left Chelsea because only the best can play in England.”

Having a wife thanks to Twitter

Michelle Lacroix, current wife of Bruyne, previously served at Belgium’s Genk football academy. In 2013, she entered university to study engineering. The same year she met Kevin.

“It confused me a bit, but it was funny,” Kevin recalls. “It all started with a Twitter line. I just started playing at Werder Bremen and my Twitter only had a few thousand subscribers. One day I wrote something on it, maybe a comment.

About the match, then a beautiful girl “liked” it. A friend of mine saw it and said, “She’s pretty. You have to write back to her! ‘ I retorted, ‘No, no, people don’t like me, they don’t understand me. She certainly won’t answer.”

Hearing that, my friend took my phone and typed something, then showed it to me and asked if it could be sent. I was curled up on the floor at the time, I should have said it was delivered. See, I can’t even write a letter to my future wife. A few months later, we gradually got to know each other and then became husband and wife. Now I don’t know what I would have done without her.”

The friend who typed the text turned out to be soccer player Kenneth Staelens, he started in Genk with Kevin. After graduating from the academy, each went his own way: De Bruyne was promoted to the main team, and Stalen had to play for Roda in the Netherlands.

During his three years at Roda, he played only one game for the main team, and in 2012 returned to Belgium, where he still plays for clubs in the lower divisions.

Staelens said: “Thanks to Michelle, Kevin has completely developed. Kevin has become a lot more open and communicative. At the beginning of his career, he was just floating in the clouds. Just focused his mind. His interest in football came without knowing how to attend a party. Now, his interests have expanded greatly.”

Kevin De Bruyne and Michelle Lacroix married in 2017, when they had a son Mason. In 2018, the second son Rome was born, and in 2020 there is a daughter Suri.