There is no official UEFA award for best assist of the season in the Champions League.

Nor should there be. Once you start down the road of cheap, arbitrary gongs, where do you draw the line? Best long throws in the Premier League? (Michael Kayode, obviously).

Anyway, if such an award existed, Kevin De Bruyne has made an early claim which will be tough to top in 2025-26.

The magic moment occurred during the 36th minute of Napoli's home match against Sporting. Via seven sultry touches of the football, De Bruyne forged a path that would guide himself and the ball some 70 yards upfield, past five bewildered and helpless opponents.

Touches one, two and three occur just outside his own penalty area, as De Bruyne takes a beat with a Sporting attack quelled, nonchalantly glides past Joao Simoes and bypasses the onrushing Morten Hjulmand to pass to midfield team-mate Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, while darting free of the aforementioned Sporting players to launch a counter-attack, post-haste.

Anguissa's pass is a good one as it allows De Bruyne to move forward into space, space which Sporting defender Eduardo Quaresma shrinks as he advances on the Belgian, but touch four sees him wrong-foot Quaresma, who is left floundering as De Bruyne skips and saunters by, slamming down the clutch and revving into fourth as he goes.

Touches five and six are merely the cajoling preamble to the piece de resistance, aka touch seven, a piercing through ball which splits defender Goncalo Inacio and backtracking forward Geny Catamo like a warm bread knife through a freshly baked ciabatta roll straight out of mama's oven.

It is perfectly placed, perfectly weighted and perfectly beautiful.

Rasmus Hojlund is the beneficiary and duly obliges with a low finish through the keeper's legs for a goal that will live long in the memory. Sure, nicely done, and the record books will show it was Hojlund's goal. But that is a bit like Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa, then letting his mate Dave colour in one of her eyes, but then Dave claims the painting for his own and takes all the credit for the rest of time.

This was De Bruyne's goal in all but name. Seven seconds, seven touches, 70 yards, five players bypassed. A sculptured slalom of grace and elegance.

Rolling back the years is a cliched phrase, but it is the one that immediately comes to mind when watching De Bruyne thread his way through half of Sporting's outfield players.

It was a timely reminder of his otherworldly capabilities, too, after a mixed start to life in Naples. In fact, two days earlier, De Bruyne had been described as "a problem" for manager Antonio Conte.

De Bruyne had reacted angrily to being substituted in the 72nd minute of Napoli's 2-1 defeat by AC Milan at the weekend, prompting Conte to say: "I hope De Bruyne was upset about the substitution because of the result, because otherwise he's got the wrong guy."

The club's former general manager Pierpaolo Marino then poured fuel on the fire by questioning whether Scott McTominay should have been pushed out to the left of midfield to make way for De Bruyne. McTominay has had less of an impact so far this season (one goal in seven appearances) than when he was central (in more ways than one) to Napoli's title success last year, with 12 goals in 34 Serie A matches.

"Is De Bruyne there or is he a reminder of what he used to be?" Marino asked. "De Bruyne is stepping on McTominay's toes, who isn't producing goals and finishing like last year, and that's obvious. It's a huge problem."

McTominay's numbers may be down but De Bruyne's are starting to look good. After so exquisitely setting up that Hojlund opener on Wednesday night, the pair combined again in the second half, with De Bruyne's whipped inswinging cross from the left bravely met by Hojlund ahead of the keeper in what proved to be the night's crucial goal in a 2-1 victory. That made it three goals and two assists in seven Napoli appearances for the 34-year-old, albeit two of those goals were penalties.

Where will his luxurious assist rank in another award that does not exist, namely the greatest Champions League assist?

Well, the pass was not quite as good as Kaka's groan-inducing curved pass for Hernan Crespo in the 2005 final between AC Milan and Liverpool. The pace was not as electrifying as Theo Walcott's destructive dash from one end of Anfield to the other for Arsenal in 2008, which set up Emmanuel Adebayor. And the movement could never be as iconic as Sergio Busquets' submissive touch, pause and guide for Lionel Messi to embark on one of the best solo goals ever seen in the 2011 El Clasico semi-final at the Bernabeu.

But it had a bit of all of the above. It was De Bruyne at his very best. He has still got it.

Kevin De Bruyne's superb, slaloming assist: Seven seconds, seven touches, 70 yards