Kevin De Bruyne arrives in Florence on Sunday with another personal landmark close at hand, but Napoli’s wider need is equally clear: turn his ideas into the points that shape a long championship. The Belgian is sitting on 199 career goals and will seek number 200 against Fiorentina at the Franchi.
Kevin De Bruyne chases 200th career goal as Napoli visit Fiorentina
SEO Title: Kevin De Bruyne targets 200th career goal in Napoli’s Fiorentina trip
SEO Description: Kevin De Bruyne has 199 senior goals between club and Belgium and could reach 200 when Napoli face Fiorentina at the Franchi on Sunday.
Quick facts
- De Bruyne has scored 199 goals in his senior career.
- His club record is 161 goals in 673 matches across all competitions.
- He has added 38 goals in 124 appearances for Belgium.
- Napoli have received six goals from him in 26 appearances.
- He has created 10 chances in the league, twice as many as Napoli’s next-best creator, Leonardo Spinazzola on five.
His first senior goal came for Genk against Standard Liège in the Belgian league on 7 February 2010, when he was 18. Since beginning his career in Belgium in 2008, he has found the net for Genk, Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg, Manchester City, Napoli and the Belgian national team.
Chelsea are the lone exception among his clubs. De Bruyne made nine appearances without scoring during a brief spell in London before moving to Wolfsburg in January.
The final step towards 200 has not been straightforward. He was unable to reach it against Como, Inter, Arsenal and Bologna, while he had at least two close opportunities in the recent match at Genoa.
He did score against Genoa in Napoli’s 22 August league opener, taking his Napoli total to six. All six have come in Serie A: five last season against Sassuolo, Fiorentina, Milan, Inter and Cremonese, followed by the Genoa goal.
Florence offers a familiar setting. At the Franchi last season, De Bruyne converted the penalty that made it 1-0 against David de Gea, the former Manchester United goalkeeper he repeatedly faced in Manchester derbies. De Gea is again likely to stand between him and the milestone.
De Bruyne is expected to start for the third match in succession, after appearances from the outset against Arsenal in the Champions League and Bologna at the Maradona. His Bologna display underlined both his appetite for the match and his ability to set the rhythm for those around him.
Allegri has pushed De Bruyne’s operating area further forward in an effort to draw more from his final pass and his work around Rasmus Hojlund and Napoli’s other attackers. Yet the side’s balance still requires him to retreat and connect play in deeper areas.
That responsibility has not prevented him from becoming Napoli’s leading chance creator. His 10 league chances are double Spinazzola’s five, and he also supplied the assist for Vergara at Marassi.
Should Napoli eventually allow him to spend more time as a dedicated attacking midfielder, with less ground to cover, his influence could grow further. For Sunday, however, the immediate chapter is simple: a demanding away afternoon, a familiar goalkeeper and one goal separating De Bruyne from 200.
