N'Golo Cante is a French professional footballer of Malian origin, playing as a defensive midfielder in London's Chelsea and the French national team.
As part of the “tricolor”, he is the silver medalist of the European Championship 2016 and the winner of the World Cup 2018. Previously, he performed in such clubs as “Boulogne”, “Caen” and “Leicester City”. As part of the latter is the champion of the English Premier League 2015/16. The growth of a football player is 168 centimeters, weight - 68 kg. Known in England as the best defensive midfielder. In the 2016/17 season, he was recognized as the player of the year of England according to the Professional Football Association.
N'Golo Cante made his professional debut at the French club Boulogne, of which he is partly a pupil. In 2013, he joined the Kan, where he spent two seasons in League 1.
In 2015, he joined Leicester City, where in the first season he became the champion of England. After that, he was immediately summoned to the national team. Currently stands for Chelsea, which went to 32 million pounds. As part of the “blue” also became the champion of the Premier League in the debut season.
Biography
N'Golo Kante was born on March 29, 1991 in Paris (France). At the age of eight, he began to study at the Suren Football Academy, located in the western suburbs of the capital. He played in the youth system of the club for 10 years.
According to assistant coach Pierre Ville, Kante was never the object of attention from the big clubs, this was facilitated by the small growth of the midfielder, as well as the selfless style of the game, which did not always follow the rules of coaching settings.
In 2010, N'Golo Cante moved to the Boulogne youth squad. On May 18, 2012 he made his debut for the adult team in the French League 2 in a lost match against Monaco (1: 2), replacing him in the 80th minute.
The team's position in the tournament was deplorable, in the 2012/13 season the club flew another division lower - to the Nacional league - the third largest level in France.
On August 10, N'Golo Kante scored his first goal against the Luzenac AP.
Career for Kahn
In 2013, Kante became a Kan club player from League 2. In the debut season he spent all 38 championship games and became the author of two goals. According to the results of the season, “Caen” took third place, earning a ticket to League 1. In the 2014/15 season, the Frenchman continued to play in the main team of “Kanets” - he played 37 games and scored 2 goals. He was the best in Europe in the number of goals scored in a season.
As part of Leicester City
In August 2015, the Frenchman signed a contract with the English club Leicester City, which conducted a radical rotation in the composition. “Foxes” paid 8 million euros for the midfielder. Five days after signing the four-year contract, Kant made his debut in a match against Sunderland, replacing Jamie Vardi in the last minutes (Leicester's victory 4: 2). The midfielder scored his debut goal on November 7 at the gate of Watford (victory 2: 1).
Already in the first matches for Leicester, the French footballer N'golo Kante earned a lot of praise and applause from the fans and fans of the club. The player showed excellent physical performance and skills in the game. Kante controlled the entire center of the field in the Premier League matches, having on his account more than all the selections and interceptions.
In April 2016, he was one of four Leicester footballers included in the PFA of the year. During the triumphant season of the Foxes, N'Golo made 175 selections (31 more than any other player in Europe) and 157 interceptions (15 more than any other player in Europe). The Frenchman’s defensive statistics were simply phenomenal. A large number of goals, “Leicester City” was scored after intercepting or selecting Kante, who began to create a counterattack. As a result, the foxes won first place in the Premier League.
Kante was the only key member of the team who left the club in the summer of 2016. His departure was the main factor in the sharp decline in the form of “Leicester” in the 2016/2017 season, as the club could not find an equivalent midfielder to replace him.
N'Golo Kante at Chelsea
On July 16, 2016, the midfielder signed a five-year contract with Chelsea, the transfer amount was 32 million pounds. As part of the “blue”, the player received a T-shirt with number 7, which was released after Ramirez left in January of the same year.
On August 15, 2016, Kant made his debut in a match with West Ham United. From the first minutes of the match, the opornik N'Golo Kante began an active game, getting into a tough fight for the ball with an opponent. In the third minute of the match, he received a yellow card. But this did not hurt him in any way - he began to play even more actively, but more vigilantly. As a result, Chelsea won 2-1, and Kante proved to the coaching staff that he was a key player here.
Three months after signing the contract with Chelsea, Kante first met his former Leicester City team and became the best footballer in a 3-0 victory match.
On October 23, he scored his first goal for a London club in a match with Manchester United (4-0 victory).
In December 2016, he was included in the list of the best football players of the year according to L'Equipe, where he took sixth position.
Kante was the first player since 1993, who managed to win the Premier League two consecutive seasons for different clubs, previously Eric Cantona. In October 2017, Cante was nominated for the Ballon d'Or Award, which is awarded to the best player in world football. In total, before the start of the 2018/19 season, he played 89 matches for the Blues and scored 3 goals.
Career for France
Having Malian roots, the football player began to play in the Mali team in 2015. He took part in the Africa Cup 2015. Soon, the midfielder announced that he was abandoning the games in his national team, because he was aimed to conquer League 1. Nevertheless, he constantly received invitations to play for Mali. In 2016, Cante was declared a member of the French national team - the player could not restrain himself and began to fight for the “three-color” ones.
He made his debut for France on March 17, 2016 in a friendly match with the Netherlands. As part of the new team, Kante successfully entrenched. The player is currently the vice champion of Euro 2016 and the world champion in 2018.
Personal life of N'Golo Cante
Kant's parents moved to France from Mali in 1980. They named their son in honor of the eminent king of Bamana - N'Golo Diarra. The player also has a younger sister, who has been training at the Suren club football academy since 2017. Kante is a devout Muslim, regularly attends a mosque and prays. During his career at Bulni, the Frenchman regularly visited the mosque with teammate Haruna Abu Demba.