If Makelele revolutionized the defensive midfield position and led Chelsea to an unprecedented 95-point 2004/05 top-flight winning season, ten years down the lane Kante redefined the role in an era where Leicester City’s 5000/1 odds to win the 2015/16 Premier League raised eyebrows like no other event in recent memory.
Although he lasted just one season with the Foxes, making 40 appearances (transfermarkt), Kante made a difference like no other midfielder in the league that fateful season.
In a season where Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez stole the show with fleet-footed goalscoring prowess, N’Golo Kante was the pivot who rarely caught the eye.
As Chelsea met champions Leicester City in the 2016/17 season and ran out 3-0 winners, the Blues’ midfield engine inflicted colossal damage on his former employers with his exceptional positional sense of play and never-ending energy – a testament to his expertise few other players in the defensive position can rival. (BBC Sport)
That year saw Kante win the Premier League title for a second season in a row, this time with Chelsea – becoming the first player since Eric Cantona in 1993 to win back-to-back league titles in England with two clubs.
With his mobility and stamina moulded for the most important of games, Kante’s box-to-box abilities have made him a sure-stay in the Chelsea midfield.
Chelsea, Leicester City and France all benefitted by employing the anchor in midfield – a presence crucial to the two league titles won by the clubs in successive seasons and France’s extraordinary run to the World Cup title in 2018 – three unrivalled titles in three years. A late bloomer, but a bloomer anyway.
He is now the 93rd player in Chelsea’s history to register 200 or more caps for the club. While, it remains to be seen where the enigmatic ball-winner will end up in his meteoric career, as Real Madrid’s Zidane and Inter’s Antonio Conte have been long admirers of the Frenchman’s abilities in central midfield.
As is current Chelsea gaffer Thomas Tuchel. (Eurosport)
Kante’s magnificence in midfield can only be watched, not stated. Perhaps only with statistics, but nonetheless understated. An underrated choirmaster whose orchestra-dictating style of play has so far earned him 200 caps with the Blues, Kante will forever be known as the player whose humility and energy knows no bounds.
