KDB SAVES COOL £8 AGREEING OWN DEAL

KEVIN DE BRUYNE saved himself more than £8million by negotiating his new Manchester City contract himself.

The 29-year-old (right) has signed a four-year deal that could bank him close to £400,000 a week when bonuses and commercial rights are included.

The total package is set to cost City around £83m – and De Bruyne will not be obliged to pay the usual 10 per cent agency fees after opting to seal the deal himself following a legal wrangle with his former adviser Patrick De Koster.

De Koster is under police investigation after De Bruyne’s father Herwig uncovered a number of alleged financial discrepancies last year.

De Bruyne Snr used Brusselsbased law firm Altius to iron out the fine details with City after his son had agreed his own salary package. Altius charge £500 an hour – so the final bill to De Bruyne for 100 hours of work by the firm’s team, including lawyer Sven Demeulemeester and foreign tax expert Daan Buylaert, was £50,000.

All negotiations between City and Altius were done over Zoom due to the pandemic.

De Bruyne’s use of data analysis to illustrate his value to the club was vital during discussions.

But it was only after City had pulled the plug on the bid to bring in Lionel Messi from Barcelona at the end of the season that they agreed to meet the player’s wage demands.