Did Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne co-write a song on Drake’s latest album?

Manchester City began the defence of their Premier League title on August 11 with a game away to newly-promoted Burnley, managed by former captain Vincent Kompany. An early goal from Erling Haaland (who else?) got the new campaign off to the best possible start for Pep Guardiola’s team, who went onto win comfortably. However, they had to play for over an hour without key man Kevin De Bruyne, who was forced off with an injury. Since then, some believed he had spent more time writing lyrics with Drake than playing soccer.

“K. De Bruyne” credited as writer on Drake bonus track

In October, the Canadian rapper, who recently ended a bizarre war of words with tennis star Nick Kyrgios, released his latest album, For All the Dogs, which contains 23 tracks and a number of bonus songs, one of which is called “Wick Man”. The credits for that particular track list A. Graham (Aubrey Graham, aka Drake), A. Mamam (Alan Maman, aka The Alchemist) and a certain K. De Bruyne as its writers.

The real identity of ‘K. De Bruyne’ was initially something of a mystery, although several websites, including Genius, an online music encyclopedia, went ahead and confirmed the City midfielder as one of the brains behind the song. Soccer players have plenty of down time, so it made sense, right?

KDB posts photo with Drake on Instagram

Following the discovery, social media users had a field day, comparing the Belgian’s ability to “assist” Drake with his songwriting to how he “assists” Haaland with his goalscoring. Even De Bruyne himself played along, posting a photo of himself alongside Drake on Instagram.

At first glance, it appeared as if it could be confirmation of his collaboration with the five-time Grammy Award winner. But the clue to solving the mystery came in the comments, with even Haaland getting involved in the conversation.

“Huge fan” De Bruyne didn’t co-write “Wick Man”

“Drake (@champagnepapi) needed an assist,” read the caption alongside De Bruyne’s snap with the rapper.

“He is not alone,” Haaland chimed in. The Belgian set up 13 of the Norwegian’s 52 goals in all competitions last season.

But it turns out that, in this particular situation, the City striker is, in fact, alone, with De Bruyne revealing he was unable to take any credit that had come his way moments later. “All jokes aside, it’s not me! Huge fan though!”