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#3 N'golo Kante is arguably the best ball-winner in the world
The likes of Casemiro and Kimmich are regarded as the best defensive midfielders in world football, but N'Golo Kante's exceptional performances in the second half of the season have made a strong case for the Frenchman.
Kante is a dynamic ball carrier from midfield who can intercept and win balls back for Chelsea time and time again. At the same time, he is an excellent passer of the ball and registered a passing accuracy of over 85% in the Premier League season.
The World Cup winner averaged over 50 passes in every league match this season. N'Golo Kante is arguably the best defensive midfielder in world football at the moment, especially due to his exceptional skill of smothering opposition attacks.
The former Foxes' midfielder has registered a tackle success rate of 53% in the 2020/21 Premier League with a staggering tally of 79 tackles and 59 interceptions.
#2 Could win Euro 2020 with France
The upcoming Euros will afford all footballers another opportunity to make their case for the 2021 Ballon d'Or trophy.
While most Ballon d'Ors are decided by the players' performance at their respective clubs, the criteria will be slightly different this year. A case in point is Luka Modric's 2018 Ballon D'Or win, in a season where the Croatian won a Champions League title with Real Madrid and backed it up with Croatia's best performance in a World Cup campaign.
N'Golo Kante has the opportunity to do one better by the end of the 2020/21 season. France are strong favorites going into the Euros and Kante will play a pivotal role at the heart of Les Bleus' midfield. If he can repeat his stellar performances from the 2018 World Cup, it will be very difficult to look beyond Kante as the world's best footballer in the 2020/21 season.
Les Bleus will kick off their Euros campaign against Germany on the 16th of June.
#1 Man of the Match performances in UCL semi-final and final
One of the primary reasons for Chelsea's glorious 2020/21 Champions League campaign was N'Golo Kante's assured presence in midfield.
The 30-year old was undoubtedly the best player on the pitch in the knockout stages of the Champions League, especially in the semis and finals. Real Madrid's midfield trio of Modric, Kroos and Casemiro is widely regarded as the best midfield in world football, but Kante's stellar showing in the semi-finals won Chelsea the midfield battle almost single-handedly.
Heaping praise on Kante, Thomas Tuchel once said in an interview,
"If you play with N'Golo Kante you always play with a minimum half a man more; this is unique."
The Chelsea manager was not disappointed in the Champions League finals either, as Kante stifled Manchester City's attacks over and over again.
City prefer to attack down the middle with short passes and move the ball in narrow spaces, but Kante's presence in the center broke down City's attacks before it could turn dangerous. Kante was, undoubtedly, the best player in the Champions League knockout stages.
The Champions League winners' medal could go a long way in securing France's first Ballon d'Or award since Zinedine Zidane in 1998.
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