Paul Pogba or Kevin De Bruyne? Who is the better player?
The Manchester Derby is one of the biggest fixtures in the history of the Premier League with extraordinary players involved fighting against each other. The rivalry between these two clubs is evergreen and is growing every year.
Fans are divided in debates on tons of topics including the superiority of their favourite player. One big topic for debate is if Paul Pogba is better than Kevin De Bruyne or the other way around.
The two players have been involved with this club for a long time and give their everything on the field. In the past few years, their contribution to their team is noteworthy.
Paul and De Bruyne are both exceptional players who are masters of their craft and are experts in their position. The big divide exists because one dominate the other in certain areas yet they stand close to one another overall.
Is Paul Pogba actually better than Kevin De Bruyne? Let’s find out.
Pogba or De Bruyne? 👀
— FansBet (@FansBet) March 30, 2019
Who would you choose to be in your midfield? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/UOoLuPtm53
1: Personal Stats
The French star is known for his box to box playing style inside the field while he helps the team in defence while the Belgian is famous for his accuracy and playmaking skills. The player who has the abilities like the second category will always have better personal stats.
The Manchester City midfielder De Bruyne is technical and can take more accurate shots compared to Pogba. At the same time, Pogba possesses more shot power to make his shots unstoppable.
Statistics of the current Premier League season as of November.
Certainly, Pogba looks the better player based on the above comparison but if we compare their overall career stats the answer will change. The style of player De Bruyne helps him to be more fierce in front of the goal.
Overall Career Stats of Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne.
The above figures justify Kevin to be the winner in terms of personal stats. Although Pogba is 2 years younger than De Bruyne and can catch up with his great numbers in future.
Paul Pogba still has the most assists in the PL and his last assist was in GW5 pic.twitter.com/ZAaX1RBxrh
— CR7 (@UNITED_KS) November 23, 2021
2: Titles
Every critic of football understands the role Kevin De Bruyne played in the success of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. For the past few years, he has been the best midfielder with the highest rating on FIFA. The trophies lifted by De Bruyne is a lot more than Pogba with Manchester United or Juventus. He won 3 Premier League titles, 5 League Cup, 1 FA Cup, 1 German Cup and other titles with his former teams.
Paul Pogba didn’t win many trophies with Manchester United but he won some in his time at Juventus. The player lifted 11 trophies in his professional career with Man United and Juventus. The story would have been different if he did not leave Juventus or the red devils played how they used to under Sir Alex. The French star has more international trophies than De Bruyne.
In terms of Domestic titles, Kevin De Bruyne wins.
Happy 29th birthday to the fastest player to reach 50 Premier League assists, two-time Premier League winner and the player with the most Premier League direct goal involvement (26) this season.
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 28, 2020
Happy birthday, Kevin De Bruyne. pic.twitter.com/nP2OGQhO3q
3: International Career
Despite looking threatening the Belgium National team did not win anything with De Bruyne. The team is filled with promising talent but couldn’t capitalize on big occasions.
The French National Team is unarguably the strongest team in this world. They have the quality and quantity to win any international title if their players play in sync. It takes hard work to get selected in such an atmosphere and Pogba was always happy to help. In his youth, he won the U-20 World Cup with France.
The reputation of Paul Pogba increased after his remarkable performance in the World Cup 2014. He was given the Best Young Player award in the Brazil World Cup.
Paul Pogba won the World Cup and the UEFA Nations League. He scored in the final of the World Cup and was praised by millions of people for completing this feat.
Pogba is the ultimate winner in this category.
Paul Pogba, Manchester United 🇾🇪 & France 🇫🇷- World Cup winner 🏆
— Ste Howson (@MrStephenHowson) July 15, 2018
Good night. pic.twitter.com/iMuwAqobrp
4: Individual Titles
According to many people, the best way to compare midfielders is to analyze their individual victories. In the case of these two players, the list of honours is long with great efforts by both of them to win these titles.
Individual Honours Of Paul Pogba:
UEFA European Under-17 Championship Team of the Tournament: 2010
UEFA European Under-19 Championship Team of the Tournament: 2012
FIFA U-20 World Cup Golden Ball: 2013
Golden Boy: 2013
Serie A Team of the Year: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16
FIFA World Cup Best Young Player: 2014
Bravo Award: 2014
UEFA Team of the Year: 2015
FIFA FIFPro World11: 2015
UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season: 2016–17, 2020–21
UEFA Europa League Player of the Season: 2016–17
PFA Team of the Year: 2018–19 Premier League
Individual Honours Of Kevin De Bruyne
Bundesliga Young Player of the Year: 2012–13
Bundesliga Player of the Year: 2014–15
Bundesliga Team of the Year: 2014–15
UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season: 2014–15
Footballer of the Year (Germany): 2015
Manchester City Player of the Season: 2015–16, 2017–18,2019–20
Manchester City Goal of the Season: 2019–20
FIFA FIFPro World11: 2020
IFFHS Men’s World Team: 2017,2019, 2020
UEFA Team of the Year: 2017, 2019, 2020
ESM Team of the Year: 2017–18, 2019–20, 2020–21
PFA Premier League Team of the Year: 2017–18, 2019–20, 2020–21
Premier League Playmaker of the Season: 2017–18, 2019–20
UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21
FIFA World Cup Dream Team: 2018
Premier League Player of the Season: 2019–20
PFA Players’ Player of the Year: 2019–20, 2020–21
UEFA Champions League Midfielder of the Season: 2019–20
IFFHS World’s Best Playmaker: 2020
IFFHS UEFA Team of the Decade: 2011–2020
It is difficult to point any one of them to be better than the other in this category. Each category has its value and importance. The only way to compare them is by the number of honours they won in their name. In recent years Kevin won plenty more in his name compared to Paul.
Kevin De Bruyne wins over Paul Pogba in this category.
Kevin De Bruyne 2019/20 #PL season:
— OLT SPORTS (@olt_sports) September 8, 2020
👕 35 Appearances
⚽️ 13 Goals
🅰️ 20 Assists
🔥 84.8 Mins Per Goal Contrib.
✨ #ManCity's first ever #PFA Players' Player of the Year winner.@premierleague #PFAawards @ManCity pic.twitter.com/2W5f8od36r
5: Club
The journey to be among the greats has been difficult for both of these players. They had to work hard to make their way into the clubs they are playing in right now. The career led by these two is inspirational for many other young players who aspire to be professional footballers in future.
Paul Pogba:
Pogba joined the youth academy of Le Havre from the Ligue 1. As a young player, he had all the qualities an ideal midfielder should possess. The youth academy of Manchester United got interested in him and signed him in 2009. After being called up for the senior team in 2011 he refused to sign the contract extension.
Juventus welcomed him with open arms as he came on a free and eventually helped them in winning multiple Serie A titles. The same year he won the ‘Golden Boy’ award. In no time he became a key player of Juventus while playing with the best squad.
Manchester United saw the potential of this young midfielder who was doing wonders in Turin. The club signed him back for a record fee of €105 million
On this day in 2016, @paulpogba returned to Manchester United 🔴 pic.twitter.com/rXNRhnWt6g
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 9, 2018
Kevin De Bruyne:
KAA Gent Youth Academy found Kevin and he played for most of his early career for them. After 7 years Chelsea decided to sign him in 2012. It was a big move for Kevin to move into the Premier League. The player failed to perform with Chelsea and was eventually sold to Wolfsburg.
After moving to Germany he worked hard on his game and was starting to get media attention. When Manchester City made a bid on Kevin many other teams were interested in him. The player decided to join Man City and it has been his home since then.
#TBT when Kevin De Bruyne played for potential last 16 opponent KAA Gent pic.twitter.com/bcwpqIX8OW
— BlueMoonRising (@BMRising) December 10, 2015
Who is the better player? Paul Pogba or Kevin De Bruyne?
It is difficult to compare these two players as they both play for different teams and have different roles to fulfil. One is a midfielder+attacker while the other is a midfielder+defender.
Paul Pogba is a game-changer who is physically strong to defend and recover the balls which lead to goals in the counterattack. The strong foot of Paul Pogba can make powerful shots from outside the box at the same time he can play in all the midfield positions.
Kevin De Bruyne is a genius on the field who can be the key player in the final 3rd area. The player is known for his accurate shots and passes to make their team undefeatable in the attacking position. He can play as a second striker or a winger using his significant dribbling skills.
I am so much excited to see these Great Midfielders playing the same league.
— Mazi Alonso 🔴⚪⚫ (@Ejike_Alonso) September 10, 2019
Pogba and De Bruyne remind me of when Messi and Ronaldo are playing the same league. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
🐐🐐🐐🐐 pic.twitter.com/GeO2DZggaf
Based on the above-stated figures Kevin won in more categories and is edging over Pogba by a small margin. Both these players are quite similar to each other and are the main players of their team. In my books, both of them are complete players and it’s a draw.
Kevin De Bruyne is the winner. It might change in the upcoming years as Pogba is 2 years younger.
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Reference:
Wikipedia
Transfermarkt
FcTables
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