The Argentine’s iconic 93:20 goal saw City win the league for the first time in 44-years in the most dramatic of fashion, as Roberto Mancini’s side edged Manchester United on goal difference.
It was the moment in that unforgettable campaign, but for Nigel De Jong, the most important result in the season was achieved two games earlier.
Vincent Kompany was the hero on that occasion, providing the Etihad Stadium with another seismic moment as he powered a header home from a corner to secure a 1-0 victory over United.
The Belgian’s goal saw City move level on points with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side, taking pole position by virtue of our superior goal difference.
For De Jong it was the point at which he truly believed Mancini’s men would be crowned champions.
“I think if I had to pick out a particular moment it’d be the United game, when Vinnie scored that header,” he told mancity.com.
“We were about eight points behind United in March or April and then we had this run.
“Yaya went to the Africa Cup of Nations so we lost him for a month in January, that was a big loss for us and we didn’t have the best results.
“When he came back we started winning again, we had a run of eight games straight and the moment I thought we had it was when Vinny scored against United and we overtook them.
“That was the moment where I thought we had it because we had two more games to go and everybody said if we beat Newcastle away before the QPR game that’s it.”
The Newcastle game provided another legendary figure from the 2011/12 squad with an opportunity to come to the fore.
In a season where a host of individuals enjoyed special moments, Yaya Toure’s performance in the North East was right up there and it was the introduction of De Jong on the hour mark which allowed the Ivorian to flourish.
Toure was pushed further forward when the Dutchman replaced Samir Nasri in midfield and duly delivered with two goals in the final 20 minutes that crucially kept City’s fortunes in our own hands heading into the final day.
In De Jong’s mind, it was one of Toure’s best performances in a sky-blue shirt.
“Our focus wasn’t on QPR, it was on Newcastle,” he added.
“Everyone was focused on that because St. James’ Park was a hard place to go, but we dominated.
“Yaya was fantastic. It was, I think, one of the best games that he ever played for City.
“He scored two goals, dominated the game and their midfield and we won.”
