• Anderson has named Kevin De Bruyne as a player he has “hugely looked up to” over the years

• The £116M signing always wanted to play like De Bruyne as he came through Newcastle’s academy

• Anderson says playing for the same club as De Bruyne is “so special”

Manchester City’s club record £116 million signing Elliot Anderson has revealed that former City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was the player he idolised throughout his rise through Newcastle United‘s academy.

The 23-year-old joined Manchester City from Nottingham Forest for £116 million – a record fee for a British player for a brief period – before Chelsea paid £117 million to sign Anderson’s England teammate Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa.

Kevin De Bruyne spent 10 years at the Etihad Stadium between 2015 and 2025, winning three Premier League titles, the Champions League and the treble before departing for Napoli last summer. He is widely regarded as one of the finest midfielders in Premier League history, having also claimed the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award twice during his time in Manchester.

Manchester City confirm club record £116M signing of Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest

Anderson’s admission that De Bruyne shaped how he approached the game from a young age adds a deeply personal dimension to a signing that director of football Hugo Viana described as the arrival of “one of the outstanding young midfield talents in world football right now,” adding that the 23-year-old could “become a complete midfielder” with the right development at the Etihad Stadium.

The Belgian’s departure for Serie A last summer left a void in City’s midfield that the club have spent considerable resources addressing – and in Anderson, they may have signed a player who has spent the better part of a decade studying precisely the model they are hoping to replace.

Anderson: “To be sat here in the same team he was doing it for is so special”

Speaking to official Manchester City media, Anderson was open about the player who defined his football education from his early teenage years at Newcastle United.

“I think Kevin De Bruyne is someone I’ve hugely looked up to over the past seven or eight years,” said Anderson. “As I came through the academy at Newcastle, I always wanted to play like him. I’ve watched him all the time and to be sat here in the same team he was doing it for is so special.”

The significance of the admission is considerable. Anderson would have been watching De Bruyne at the height of his powers as a 14 or 15-year-old academy player – precisely the formative window in which young footballers absorb their models for how the game at the highest level should be played.

De Bruyne was defined by his passing range, ability to control tempo and relentless work rate without the ball – qualities that map closely onto what Viana and manager Enzo Maresca identified when deciding to commit £116 million to sign Anderson from Nottingham Forest.

Transfer fee, contract length, first reactions, shirt number: Man City sign Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest

What does Anderson’s De Bruyne admiration tell us about Man City’s midfield future?

Declan Rice described Anderson as “the engine room” during the FIFA World Cup in North America – the same language opponents and teammates used to describe De Bruyne at his commanding peak for Manchester City during the title-winning years under Pep Guardiola.

That parallel is not lost on those within the club, and it will not be lost on Maresca – a manager who knows Anderson’s qualities intimately and has spoken about inheriting a squad with the right blend of youth and experience to push forward into the next phase of the club’s ambitions.

Whether Anderson can fill the gap left by one of the club’s all-time greats is football’s most unfair question to ask of any new signing. But his own admission that he modelled his game on De Bruyne from an early age suggests he has been studying the right template from the very beginning of his career in the game.