Kevin De Bruyne has revealed the moment he knew he had to leave Chelsea for regular football elsewhere.

The Belgian midfielder spent two years at Stamford Bridge before joining Wolfsburg in Germany permanently in 2014.

Despite showing glimpses of what he’s capable of, De Bruyne never quite got the chance to play often at Chelsea, and he says he decided to leave after a meeting with Jose Mourinho, who was in charge of the club at that time.

“You are staying. I want you to be part of this team.” “I thought, OK, great, I’m in his plans,” De Bruyne told The Players’ Tribune. “When I arrived for preseason, the vibe was good. I started two of the first four games of the season, and I thought I played ok. Not brilliant, but pretty good.

“After the fourth game, that was it. I was on the bench, and I never really got a chance again. I didn’t get an explanation. I was just out of favour for some reason.

“I was a bit naive. Most fans don’t realize that when you’re out of favour at a club, you don’t get nearly the same attention during training. It’s like you don’t exist anymore. “José called me into his office in December. He had some papers in front of him, and he said, ‘One assist. Zero goals. Ten recoveries.’ It took me a minute to understand what he was doing. Then he started reading the stats of the other attacking forwards, and it was like ‘five goals, 10 assists, whatever.’ “José was just kind of waiting for me to say something, and finally I said, ‘But some of these guys have played 15, 20 games. I’ve only played three. So it’s going to be different, no?’ It was so strange.

“I was completely honest. I said, ‘I feel like the club doesn’t really want me here. I want to play football. I’d rather you sell me.’ I think José was a bit disappointed, but to be fair to him, I think he also understood that I absolutely needed to play.”