Manchester City skipper Kevin De Bruyne is into the final year of his current deal at the club as questions are being asked over his future.
The Belgian is now into his tenth season at City and is widely recognised as one of the best players of the Premier League era, with six winners’ medals to his name.
The 33-year-old has been linked with moves to Saudi Arabia and the MLS in recent months, with his City contract due to expire on June 30, 2025. However, a new FIFA ruling may mean that this deal is extended.
Kevin De Bruyne may earn Manchester City extension
Manchester City are one of two Premier League sides scheduled to play in next summer's newly expanded Club World Cup, which will see 32 teams compete in a four-week tournament in the United States.
The competition will run from June 15 to July 13 and a FIFA rule designed to ensure teams field their strongest squads that was confirmed this week could apply to De Bruyne.
With football contracts running until June 30 each year, this creates a potential issue of clubs seeing players deals expire during the tournament, so FIFA has moved to prevent this happening.
Teams will now be able to extend contracts by a further two weeks until July 13 in order for players to take part in the whole tournament. City, therefore, could use this to extend De Bruyne's deal by two weeks, if he has not signed an extension by then.
This same rule could also apply to a number of high-profile players across Europe who are in the final year of their deals, including Bayern Munich trio Leroy Sane, Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich.
FIFA will also allow the member associations of all participating teams to open their transfer window from June 1-10, 2025, so that new signings can be made before the tournament starts on June 15.
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Chelsea will join City in the competition as both sides have won the Champions League in recent seasons, while the likes of Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan will also be among the European sides taking part.
The tournament has been widely criticised with the wisdom of adding extra fixtures to an already-crowded calendar raised by players' union FIFPRO. Manchester City midfielder Rodri was one player who discussed the dangers of playing too much football, shortly before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
