Kompany confident De Bruyne will light up the WC platform

Vincent Kompany has urged Kevin De Bruyne to use the World Cup as his springboard to winning the Ballon d'Or. Kompany, a former team-mate of De Bruyne's for both Belgium and Manchester City, is backing the midfielder to be a star of the tournament. He believes the 29-year-old can help Belgium's Golden Generation finally realise its full potential.

- Simon Mullock

Vincent Kompany hopes that dream scenario would catapult De Bruyne to the Ballon d'Or before Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe turn the fight for the title of 'best player in Europe' into the same kind of annual two-man shootout that for years saw Cristiano Ronaldo battle Lionel Messi for the prize. De Bruyne finished behind Real Madrid's Karim Benzema and Liverpool's Sadio Mane (now at Bayern Munich) in the race for the 2022 award.

And Kompany, now the manager of Burnley, said: "Kevin will be a key player in this tournament. It's still a team effort to get to those closing stages, but De Bruyne is an important player for Belgium. He has been involved in the Ballon d'Or vote for a few years now and he can win it.