Pep Guardiola says that Kevin De Bruyne is only behind Lionel Messi in his passing capacity as his last match approaches Manchester City.
Last month, De Bruyne announced that he would leave the city at the end of the season when his contract ends in the Etihad Stadium after 10 years.
He gets the chance to play on Home Turf for the last time that Stadsbedrijf Bournemouth in their Penultimate Premier League match of the season on Tuesday.
De Bruyne, who leaves the club that has lifted 16 trophies, is ranked strongly by Guardiola, who also managed the will of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and David Silva during his time in Barcelona and City.
But the Spaniard believes that only one player scores higher than De Bruyne in possession.
“One is Messi,” said Guardiola. “And the other two, let me think about it … Okay, let me put Kevin second.
“Messi is the best I have ever seen, because Messi really did it, very close to the box, but Kevin is there. They are just the statistics, goals, the assists, which he offers the team in the last third and talent.
“That is unique, that is why he has been one of the best players who had this club in the entire history. These are big, big words, because he has been a special player.”
De Bruyne has made 258 league matches under Guardiola, with an 82.4% passing accuracy in that period and has registered 109 assists.
He has made 12,889 passes and completed 10,622 of them. He also has a goodness of 80% in half of the opposition.
Messi meanwhile made 136 LaLiga performances under Guardiola in Barcelona and completed 6,354 of his 7,479 passes (85% accuracy). At that time he registered 55 assists.
City was associated with Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz and Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest as potential replacements for De Bruyne, although they reportedly withdrew their interest in the first.
Guardiola, however, admitted that it will be difficult to find a replacement for the Belgian.
“There are players who for many reasons are real, very difficult, we know that,” Guardiola added.
“But the season we have done is the season we did – we can't deny it. Of course we have to go on.”