Kevin De Bruyne will lead Belgium in Euro Qualifiers

ANI
22 Mar 2023, 15:33 GMT+10

Brussels [Belgium], March 22 (ANI): Manchester City's star mid-fielder Kevin De Bruyne has been named the captain of Belgium after Eden Hazard's retirement. There were a few changes in the camp of Belgium after Roberto Martinez's exit and the 32-year-old Eden Hazard surprisingly announced his retirement.

Many predicted that Belgium's golden era would bear some fruits at the international level. However, Belgium failed to convert their quality on the pitch into trophies. In the 2018 World Cup Belgium was one of the favourites to lift the trophy. But their campaign came to an end after losing to the eventual winners France in the semi-final by a scoreline of 1-0.

Expectations were running high in the 2022 World Cup, but once again Belgium didn't produce anything of substance. Their premature exit from World Cup wrote a different story for Belgium. In a group where the number one spot was theirs to be taken, Belgium somehow managed to bundle up and ended up packing their bags even before the knockout stage could begin.

Belgium posted a video in which De Bruyne expressed his feelings after becoming captain of the Belgian Red Devils. He said."It's a proud moment to be captain of the national team. I have been representing Belgium as a footballer for quite a long time. To represent it in this way is an honour. I hope I can fulfil that role well. "https://twitter.com/BelRedDevils/status/1638245256486350866?s=20De Bruyne has already featured as the captain for Belgium quite a few times. His last captaincy role came against Croatia in their final group-stage game of the 2022 World Cup. Belgium also had the option to go for Real Madrid's goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Inter forward Romelu Lukaku. But in the De Bruyne ended up bagging the captaincy role. The veteran midfielder has 97 caps for his country and scored 25 goals. (ANI)