Kevin De Bruyne is one of the latest Manchester City players to be knocked out of the 2024 European Championship.
After losing 1-0 to France due to an 85th-minute own goal from Jan Vertonghen, Belgium were knocked out of the tournament.
This then led to De Bruyne reacting badly to a question put to him in a post-match press conference about his side’s lack of success in recent years.
As a result, the subject of seeing the 33-year-old potentially retire from international football has been spoken about in the media.
Now though, one former England star and City manager has shared his thoughts on De Bruyne’s current situation as an international player.
Stuart Pearce says Kevin De Bruyne is good enough to continue playing internationally
When asked on talkSPORT if he thinks De Bruyne is too young to bring an end to his international career, Stuart Pearce had this to say on the matter.
He said: “I think for the qualities that he’s got at the moment, I wouldn’t if I was him. I would still want to play at the top level for my country.
“I watched the game yesterday, he’s as good as anything on the pitch at the moment still, I believe. I would keep playing if I was him.”
De Bruyne has a decision to make about his international future
Since making his senior debut for Belgium all the way back in 2010, the midfielder has gone on to make 105 appearances for his country, scoring 28 goals and delivering 49 assists along the way.
In the recent tournament, De Bruyne, who Darrent Bent said he was disappointed with in the group stage, was one of the three outfield players to play every minute of action for Belgium across their four matches.
The City star ended the tournament with more key passes (12) and recoveries (16) than any other player in the squad, as well as racking up the joint-highest total of shots at goal (11) alongside Romelu Lukaku.
His overall performances earned De Bruyne a tournament rating of 7.35/10 from WhoScored, comfortably making him Belgium’s highest-rated player.
This makes it easy to see why Pearce thinks the midfielder still has what it takes to be a top performer on the international stage, despite Belgium’s disappointing tournament in Germany.
In our view, the City veteran now has a big decision to make regarding whether he wants to continue representing his country and just stick to club football or call it a day.