N'golo Kante - A brief history

N'golo Kante holding world cup trophy

N'golo Kante-A brief History

Kante's Early life and his struggles

N'golo kante,now a household name in France and English football gained many plaudits for his outstanding performances in FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 for France and has now cemented his palce as one of the best defenisve midfielders ever known to play this beautiful game.

Though his future is bright,his past was not an enjoyable one.

FAMILY HISTORY

N’Golo Kante was born on March 29, 1991 Paris, France by relatively unknown parents known as Late Mr and Mrs Kante. His parents were migrants who migrated to France from Mali (West Africa) in 1980 to seek greener pasture in Europe. Due to their resilience nature, they thrived in doing the most complicated job that came their way. N’Golo Kante was their first child.

Kante grew up in a small flat in Rueil Malmaison, a small and densely populated sub-urban area close to Paris. This was an area known to have the best of people doing menial jobs for the big city.Ideally, Kante worked as a trash picker during his childhood. As a trash picker & grabber, he would walk for kilometers around the Suburbs of eastern Paris looking for all sort of valuable waste to collect and deliver to small recycling firms for quick cash. Even while he juggle through this, Kante remained a lad with a troubled personal life before fame.

He knew his job will continually make his family circle in poverty. Kante had the ultimate dream. A dream for any prestigious role or responsibility that would pave way for a poverty free life for his family.

After the France 98 world cup, Kante saw a different France. A France of opportunities. He saw a country whose football glory came mostly from migrants. Back then as a 7 years old boy who got use to menial jobs around Paris suburbs, Kante was already use to seeing and hearing big names of the FIFA 1998 world cup.

The likes of Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Viera, Lilian Thuram, and Nicolas Anelka were known to be household names to migrants who grazed the tournament. Their world cup victory brought about a turning point in terms of  Migrant’s participation in French football.

At age 8, Kante made the biggest decision of his life. The quest to start playing football from grassroot. He began his career at JS Suresnes in the western suburbs of Paris. Upon registration, Kante was immediately tagged by team mates as the smallest and most focused young star in the club. His small stature appearance kept many of his team mates wondering if he could last 90 minute on the pitch.

Ideally, it was Kante’s humility and hard work learned in his troubled youth that helped the miniature midfielder achieve greatness.

His team started winning trophies as soon as he entered the club. Kante would led his team winning trophies but would celebrate because it meant nothing to him. He doesn’t allow celebration go to his head. As seen in the picture below, he distances himself from a trophy celebration which came to the team because he was their main man.

N'golo kante too shy to ask for world cup trophy

More so, even while his team mates grow in height, Kante remained stucked in height but remained the most powerful (small but mighty) midfield force who would cover every blade of grass in the field.N’Golo Kante began growing after spending about 4 years at the club. His personality and career path became obvious after spending such years. At some point in time, Kante’s popularity took him to be the club’s favorite and most faithful servant. He earned extra monies by joining a team of selected youth stars who took extra hours to train very young kids. All thanks to his then assistant manager Pierre Ville who helped him to earn more after the death of his father (Mr Kante).

According to Kante’s assistant manager Pierre Ville, “Kanté remained outside the radar of big teams because of his small stature appearance. Back then, he would perform tackles all day, take the ball from one end of the pitch and would carry it to the other length of the field. That was his private training routine taught by no one.”

Another of his old pals, Francois Lemoine, added: “We were Under-18s and he was Under-15s and he was already playing with us. We were playing against a local team and he came on ten minutes from the end. He was smaller than everyone yet no one could get past him. At the end of the match we went into the changing room, I looked at one of my team-mates and I said to him, ‘Look, he’s smaller than us and in ten minutes he has shown us how to do it’. It was a real lesson in humility.”

Back then, Kante was the one player who would listen and do absolutely everything asked of him. Literally, everything. Vojtyna his youth coach once said: “I once joked with Kante before a holiday. I told N’Golo, I’m giving you two months to juggle the ball 50 times with your left foot, 50 with your right foot and 50 with your head’.  “Two months later, he did it! I was shocked. From this moment, I never told him what to do. I left him for nature to decide his case” .Kante was given a free role. His reputation at some point got fans flocking to the park pitches just to watch him play. 

This led to a move to Boulogne where he played between 2010–2012. His Boulogne coach Durand once said: “His anticipation was great, he played direct, box-to-box and the distance he covered was there for all to see.

His dream to pursue his dream in England finally came. Kanté was scouted for Premier League club Leicester City by Steve Walsh, who had previously facilitated the transfers of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez to the team. On 3 August 2015, he joined Leicester on a four-year contract, for an undisclosed fee reported to be €8 million (£5.6 million). The rest as they say, is history. 

Kante holding the pl trophy 

N’golo Kante comes from a big family (late father, mother and 4 children). He is the first child of four brothers and sisters. His dad died when N’Golo was 11 so from very early on there was a sense of responsibility.

He knew the value of working hard because that’s the only way he used to achieve something in Life. He was able to take care of every member of his family. Fixing his younger sisters at the football youth system at Suresnes, western suburbs of Paris and providing financial assistance to his brother.

After his first senior goal, French regional newspaper La Voix du Nord likened Kanté to Claude Makélélé in his early days at Nantes, due to their similar playing style and role in midfield. After asking the player if he considered Makélélé his role model, Kanté response was negative.

N’Golo Kante picked Lassana Diarra instead of Makélélé as a role model. Makélélé responded that.. “Kanté should focus on striving more to become an exceptional player on leadership basis and not only on his energy and excellent ball-winning abilities.”

N’Golo Kante has never had a flashy car or expensive clothes. At the start of his professional career at Chelsea, he commuted to training by kick scooter. As of 2017/2018 season, he drove a Mini Cooper.

According to BBC Sport’s reporter, Paul Fletcher.“Kante is uninterested in displaying his wealth”. He just sticks to his car despite receiving £120,000 per week. 

Born to Malian parents, Kanté was approached by Mali ahead of the 2015 African Cup of Nations having not played for France in any of their age group teams. Kanté declined on the basis that he was still trying to establish himself in Ligue 1. Mali issued a further invitation to Kanté in January 2016, although he stated that he was still undecided about which national team to represent should he get an invite from France.

On 17 March 2016, Kanté was selected for the France senior squad for the first time to face the Netherlands and Russia in friendlies.  He made his debut against the former eight days later, replacing Lassana Diarra at half time in a 3–2 win at the Amsterdam Arena.

Now after spending two successful years at chelsea winning the pl trophy back to back and in his first season at both Chelsea and Leicester and winning the FA cup with Cheslea this season,N'golo kante is the next big thing in football history