20-05-2025
Inside the phenomenal football brain of Kevin De Bruyne
Analysis: Football intelligence means the Belgian and Man City star's ability to read the game is on par with the greatest midfielders of all time
It's a cool August afternoon in 2022 on Tyneside, and Manchester City are losing 3-2 to Newcastle United. Suddenly, Kevin De Bruyne receives the ball in the Newcastle final third and, in the blink of an eye, splits the defence with an extraordinary pass to Bernardo Silva, who scores to make it 3-3 and rescue a point for City from a thrilling game.
From Premier League, Kevin De Bruyne's assist for Man City vs Newcastle United in August 2022
This is one of many magical moments from De Bruyne's illustrious Premier League career. As Manchester City prepare to bid farewell to the Belgian midfielder, his legacy as a Premier League great is cemented. De Bruyne possesses all the qualities of an elite midfielder: astute tactical awareness, physicality and supreme technical ability.
But as recently highlighted by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, one attribute stands out above the rest: his brain. The Belgian's ability to read the game is on par with the greatest midfielders of all time, like Xavi, Andrea Pirlo and Paul Scholes. While this ability isn't as easy to define as physical attributes such as speed and strength, there is one term that pundits, players, coaches and scientists seem to converge on when discussing this topic: football intelligence.
So, what is football intelligence? In simple terms, it's the ability to anticipate the actions of opponents and make the right decision under severe time pressure. Three decades of research in the field of sports psychology has attempted to break down football intelligence into specific, measurable skills. A recent paper published in Frontiers in Psychology has integrated this research in the form of a general, 3-stage model of how football intelligence might operate on the pitch.
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Stage 1 in this model is an assessment of the current play situation: players scan their environment, recognise patterns of play and anticipate what is about to happen on the pitch. Research has shown that more experienced players scan more frequently than less experienced players, and a higher scanning frequency is linked to a higher likelihood of completing a pass. Elite players are also better at paying attention to informative cues - such as a defender's body position - which can signal whether they are about to apply pressure or drop off.
In Stage 2, the situational assessment from Stage 1 guides decision-making via "executive functions" - mental skills that help the brain evaluate options and choose the most appropriate action. Elite footballers tend to have enhanced executive functions, allowing them to use the information they receive more effectively. In Stage 3, the outcome of the action is assessed and feedback is used to inform future decisions.
Returning to the goal described at the start of this article, this model can clearly explain the processes at play in De Bruyne's mind. He scans the opposition box before receiving the ball, recognises a gap in the defence, anticipates Silva's run and executes a sublime pass for a goal. This outcome reinforces the likelihood that De Bruyne will repeat this action if a similar scenario arises again.
How is football intelligence developed?
The current view within the field is clear: practice makes perfect. It develops through years of intense, specialised training and coaching. During this time, footballers develop a large memory bank of game-specific situations which they can access in future situations to facilitate more efficient decision-making.
Research from Premier League academies supports this idea. Elite academy players aged 9-17 were tested on several measures of football intelligence, and the results showed that performance increased significantly with age. These results were compared with those of age-matched local and regional players, and unsurprisingly, the elite players performed much better. This is likely due to the accumulation of over 7,500 hours of practice by age 16, which is almost double the number reported for sub-elite players.
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Wayne Rooney, Manchester United's all-time leading goalscorer, recently echoed the importance of practice for goal-scoring: "You practice so it becomes second nature…when you're in the box, your brain recognises the situation automatically".
But talents like Wayne Rooney or Lamine Yamal are important examples of players who show football intelligence beyond their years, highlighting that experience may not be the only factor. Notably, elite academy players display much better football intelligence than sub-elite players as early as age 9, suggesting that some players may be born with a brain for football.
One trait which may provide elite players with a pre-existing advantage to excel is vision. A study from Liverpool John Moores University found that footballers have significantly better visual acuity (the ability to see fine detail at distance) and contrast sensitivity (the ability to see the outline of an object against a background) than non-footballers.
Once viewed as "immeasurable", football intelligence can now be broken down into specific skills and quantified
Interestingly, a recent study from Dublin City University demonstrated that differences in sensory function may exist between different positions. This study showed that professional goalkeepers possess an enhanced ability to combine visual and auditory sensory information compared to both outfield players and non-footballers. However, it remains unclear whether these differences represent natural abilities or trainable skills - a question that future longitudinal research must address.
Sports science has revolutionised football in the 21st century. Clubs now collect data across numerous attributes to make more informed decisions on player development and workload management. Thanks to three decades of research, football intelligence, once viewed as "immeasurable", can now be broken down into specific skills and quantified. Clubs that leverage this research to identify and develop football intelligence within individual players may gain a significant advantage in the data arms race within professional football. For Manchester City, this may be the key to finding the next De Bruyne.
