Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard nicknamed N'Golo Kante - N'Golinho
This is a brilliant story on why Kante got that name!
France begin their Euros campaign tomorrow night against Germany, and they will be lucky enough to have our very own Champion of Europe, N’Golo Kante bossing their midfield.
Kante is a world class player, and one of the best in the game right now. In my view, he has a more than valid shout to win the Balon D’or this year, and if he manages to win the Euros with France, there becomes no debate at all.
You can often analyse players and say ‘it’s like having 2 of them on the pitch’, and many people say this about Kante. But that is incorrect… It isn’t ‘like’ having 2 of him on the pitch, when Kante plays it IS having 2 of him on the pitch, he literally plays like he gives you an extra man.
Cesc Fabregas was lucky enough to play alongside him at Chelsea during his time here, and in his first column for The Telegraph this week, he has used Kante as his main subject, and delivered some gold content on the French World Cup winner, including how he got the nick name, N’Goloinho.
It was actually Cesc, as well as Eden Hazard, who gave him that name.
“It was Eden Hazard and I who gave N’Golo Kante his Brazilian nickname of N’Golinho when we were all at Chelsea together and I still use it to this day.
“Obviously, it was a bit of fun but it showed how highly we rated N’Golo and how we appreciated some of the parts of his game that maybe other people didn’t see. Now everyone sees what an incredible player he is and, even if France do not win the Euros, N’Golinho is one of the greatest-ever players in his position.
“His dribbling could surprise you. He’s seen as a defensive midfielder who makes all these tackles and recoveries and it’s fantastic, but sometimes we wouldn’t see him lose the ball. He can run with the ball, break lines and dribble, and sometimes, just because it’s him, we don’t appreciate these things. So that’s maybe why we started to call him N’Golinho. He’s one of the most complete midfielders in the world, for sure.”
Cesc also thinks Kante is in for a valid shout at winning Balon D’or..
“If France, who are my favourites for the tournament, do win the Euros then there will be a very strong case for N’Golo to win the Ballon d’Or having already added the Champions League to his World Cup and Premier League titles.”
To think there was some of us actually debating whether we should sell Kante not so long ago! This was during a time when Kante had a lot of injury problems and it looked like he would continue with them, to be fair.
Now, he looks set to extend his current Chelsea contract and I say we do not let him leave until he’s using a Zimmer frame!
He is so much more than just a defensive midfielder. In fact, he isn’t even a defensive midfielder, he is a box-to-box midfielder, and he is currently one of the best in the game.
I’m really looking forward to watching him for France in this tournament, first up against our German lads Antonio Rudiger, Kai Havertz, and Timo Werner. This will be a game and a half tonight!
Simon Phillips