Kevin De Bruyne claims his heart is set on playing alongside Gabriel Jesus for many more years - despite the fact Arsenal are pushing to sign his Manchester City teammate.
It emerged in late April that the Gunners have been in contact with Jesus' representatives for many months over a potential summer transfer. Mikel Arteta and Edu are believed to view the 25-year-old as an ideal option to fill the void in their attack left by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who joined Barcelona in January.
Right on cue after reports surfaced, Jesus produced one of the finest performances of his career in his next appearance by scoring four times and assisting the other goal in a 5-1 thrashing of Watford. He completed his first Premier League hat-trick with a penalty after De Bruyne, City's regular taker from 12 yards, handed him the ball in a kind gesture.
The Belgian midfielder was asked why he gave up the spot kick during a press conference on Tuesday ahead of City's second Champions League semi-final leg against Real Madrid. He responded: "I don't care in that moment, in that moment I thought it was the right decision for him to take so I told Gabi, 'you can take it, I have full confidence in you'.
"For him it's important, for me I don't care if I score that penalty. That's a goal or whatever but it doesn't get me further in what I want to achieve. But for him to get a hat-trick is special and important for a striker, so I thought it was a good moment just to give it to him and he was playing great, I had full confidence he could score. Besides that, he's been amazing."
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De Bruyne and Jesus have been teammates since the latter left his native Brazil for the Etihad in a £27million transfer from Palmeiras in January 2017. The Arsenal target - who has just over one year remaining on his contract - has scored 95 times in 232 appearances for Pep Guardiola's side including 13 goals in 37 games in all competitions this season.
But De Bruyne was keen to highlight Jesus' impact goes far beyond goals as he is also a hard-working force he relishes playing alongside. The former Chelsea star added: "Since he (Jesus) came here, I've had a good relationship with him, I think we've found each other lots of times. He plays with so much energy, he's always there, he helps the team out. I have never any doubts on his quality and he's still so young. I hope he can play many times with me because I think he makes this team better."
