De Bruyne and Salah Meet in Final World Cup Clash
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- Belgium and Egypt open World Cup Group G on Monday, with Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah leading their respective national teams; both players will be 34 at kickoff, and Salah's birthday falls on the same day.
- Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah both struggled at Chelsea after January signings two years apart — De Bruyne made just 9 appearances, Salah 19 — before loan moves to Werder Bremen and Fiorentina and permanent transfers to Wolfsburg and Roma transformed their careers.
- Mohamed Salah leads the all-time head-to-head 10-5 across 19 previous meetings, a tally that includes Egypt's 2-1 World Cup warm-up win over Belgium four years ago; this Group G opener is their 20th encounter.
- Salah won four Premier League Golden Boots and set the 38-game season scoring record with 32 goals in 2017/18 (since surpassed by Erling Haaland), while De Bruyne matched four playmaking titles and shared Thierry Henry's seasonal assists record of 20 in 2019/20 before Bruno Fernandes claimed it outright this past campaign.
- De Bruyne publicly said in 2022 that Belgium were "too old" to win the World Cup, and the source notes the Red Devils still lack the quality of their 2018 "golden generation"; Egypt, meanwhile, have progressed past the group stage only once in their history, reaching the round of 16 in 1934.
- Salah and De Bruyne have consistently praised one another — Salah told Gary Neville he wanted to congratulate De Bruyne on his Manchester City career after his 2025 exit, and De Bruyne called Salah "unbelievable," framing the rivalry as one of mutual respect rather than animosity.
Why it matters: Two of the defining players of the Premier League's 2010s–2020s rivalry meet at a World Cup for what the source calls a likely final head-to-head, with the 10–5 head-to-head ledger and a string of individual scoring and assists records still shaping how each legacy is remembered. For Egypt, the source underscores that a round-of-16 finish would be only the second time they've escaped the group stage in their history, and reaching it now requires winning an extra knockout game.
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