A few can argue that not all players will give their 100% every time they step on the pitch but having one of those can be significantly valuable. Over the past few years we have seen the importance of having a deep lying midfielder that does the “dirty work” and those players have understandably shot up in price, players such as Naby Keita who joins Liverpool from RB Leipzig in the summer for £70m. One player that has risen through the ranks is frenchman N’Golo Kanté who only three years ago was practically an unknown player and today is a two time Premier League winner and the 2017 PFA Player of the Year awards.
Young Kanté
Born in March 1991 in Paris, France, Kanté began his career in the Parisian suburbs, joining JS Suresnes at the age of 8 in 1999, staying at his boyhood club until 2010 when he joined the reserves of Ligue 2 team Boulogne where he made his debut against Monaco in a 2-1 loss. In the 2012-13 season in the third tier of french football, missing only a single league game.
Caen
Impressive performances for Boulogne would earn Katné a move to Ligue 2 side Caen in 2013 where he would help his side earn promotion to Ligue 1. The following season, Kanté would again show some brilliant performances and miss only one game in the 14/15 season where he would recover the ball more than any other player in Europe that season.
Leicester
In the summer of 2015, he was scouted by Leicester man Steve Walsh, who had previously scouted players such as Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez,
and would ultimately be brought to the Premier League side for around £6m and made his debut in a 4-2 home win against Sunderland. Kanté’s single season at Leicester would be on that would stand out in the eyes of fans as the foxes marched to an incredible Premier League title, the team that had only narrowly escaped relegation the season before under Nigel Pearson were now Premier League champions under the guidance of italian Claudio Ranieri and with Kanté playing a crucial role in the centre midfield, sweeping up and allowing players such as Danny Drinkwater to think more going forward. Alongside Kanté there were Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez who between them scored 41 league goals, with Vardy being top scorer and Mahrez earning the PFA Player of the Year award. Kanté was recognized for his hard work with the foxes despite his short stature and only a year after joining Leicester, he would join Chelsea for around £32m.📷
Chelsea
Kanté’s season under Antonio Conte came to a great start, winning his first 3 games under the Italian, but after some poor results at home to Liverpool and away to Arsenal and with people speculating about Kanté’s ability with the top teams. After the 3-0 loss to Arsenal, Conte would change Chelsea’s formation from their regular 4-3-3 to a 3-4-3 where players such as Eden
Hazard would have to do less defensive work and focus more on attacking. Kanté would show some very impressive performances with Chelsea in their new system where they won 13 league matches in a row. Kanté would score his first goal for Chelsea in a 4-0 home drubbing over Manchester United where former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho would get humiliated.
Chelsea would go on to win the title in the end with Kanté winning the PFA Player of the Year and at the same time becoming the first player since Eric Cantona to win two consecutive league titles with two different teams. Kanté had become so good that he was even nominated for the Balon D’or with some questioning his absence in the FIFA World XI. 📷
International
After Kanté’s brilliant season with Leicester he would be selected to the French squad for the 2016 Euros where he would make his competitive debut. Kanté chose France over Mali in 2015 but at the time he had not played a match for France in the elite age group. Kanté’s debut tournament saw France coming as runners-up after losing to France in the final. Kanté was an unused substitute.
Kanté’s tireless work and endless pace sees him as one of the hardest working defensive midfielders in the world, with people comparing him to compatriot Claude Makelele for his ballwinning as a box-to-box midfielder. Kanté is seen as one of the league’s most humble players as he is not a fan of displaying his wealth, where other players show off their fancy cars, Kanté just drives a standard Mini and even when he crashed it, he showed up in it to training the next day. This surely proves that Kanté is one of the league’s nice guys as well as being one of the best in the top flight.
(Images: Getty)
Post by: Emil Árnason
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