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When you think of the best defensive midfielders in the game, Ngolo Kante comes straight to mind. Kante is known to be one of the most humble players in the world while on the field he is one the fiercest, to say the least.
Kante was a key part of the Leicester City squad that incredibly, won the Premier League a couple of years ago. Having spent just a single season at the King Power stadium, Chelsea came calling and he moved to Stamford Bridge for a sum reported to be around £30 million.
He, not only went on to become Chelsea's best player but won also won the PFA Player of the year award that season. The season following to that he won the FA Cup. This summer he won the greatest of the lot; helping France secure their second World Cup trophy in Russia.
Thus, It is fair to say that Kante has been the key to success for both his club and national teams. Despite all of his achievements, Kante is admired most for his humble personality. The pint-sized Frenchman does not showboat or live too lavishly. He is said to dress very simple and lead a simple lifestyle.
Most rival fans admire Kante for his attitude towards the game. Aside from the fact that Kante covers more than 70% of the pitch, we do not know much about him.
In this article, we look at 3 lesser known things about the World Cup winner:
#1 Owns second-hand car
Footballers are known to own very luxurious and expensive cars. However, that is not the case with the Chelsea midfield general. According to this report in The Sun, Kante drives a second-hand mini cooper to training every day.
Kante, who earns close to £120,000-a-week at Chelsea, owns the budget car that can be easily bought for £20,000.
Kante explained:
“I’ve never been someone who loves a car and when I was young I didn’t have the ambition of a car or something like that. But my Mini, for the beginning, was good to learn to drive on the left. I got it in Leicester and I still have it now. But it’s good.”
To put this into perspective, teammate Eden Hazard is said to own a Mercedes Benz AMG GTR, Audi R8 V10, BMW X6 and an Audi RS4 Avant, each of which costs at least 3-4 times more than Kante's mode of transport. ( Source)
No wonder people admire Kante's humility!
#2 Surprising role model
Most people think of Kante to be Makelele's successor. Afterall, both players have the same nationality, both have represented Chelsea and both prefer to do their jobs silently. So it is natural for most people to conclude that Kante would be a huge follower of the former Chelsea legend.
However, Kante, on the other hand, was a big fan of a former Chelsea reject Lassana Diarra. Diarra, who currently plies his trade for Paris Saint-Germain, represented Chelsea for two seasons, making just 31 appearances in the process.
Possessing high stamina, Diarra could play in defensive midfield as well as in a more advanced position. Makelele, on the other hand just used to sit in front of the defence protecting them from any sort of attack.
If we carefully notice Kante, he likes to move around tirelessly to retrieve the ball. Probably for that reason Kante is more fond of Diarra.
Historically one of the greatest defensive midfielders to ever play the game, Claude Makelele is one of the most respected players in the game of football. He was so good at his work that many people refer to that position as the "Makelele Role".
#3 Kante wanted to join Marseille
One of the biggest transfer coups of the Premier League era, N'golo Kante was signed by Leicester City for a reported sum of £5.6 million in 2015 from Caen.
Almost amazing is the fact that a year later, Kante signed for Chelsea for just £32 million, which can again be considered as a bargain, as he helped his new employers to win the Premier League and the FA Cup during his two seasons.
However, from this report by the Independent, Kante admitted to being flattered by Marseille's interest before landing up in the Premier League:
“Among the clubs that most wanted to recruit me were Marseille and Leicester,” Kante told French broadcaster Canal Plus. Kante in 2015 had the chance of going to Marseille from Caen. He was a big fan of Frank Ribery and Samir Nasri and wanted to follow in their footsteps.
"I remember the generation of [Mamadou] Niang, [Franck] Ribery and [Samir] Nasri and it was a team that I liked, especially in the Champions League."
Thankfully for Leicester and later Chelsea, the World Cup winner decided to ignore Marseille and the rest is history.
