Leicester City face Chelsea this afternoon in the Premier League, a team who have turned to the Foxes on more than one occasion for signings.
The Blues have signed five players from Leicester over the years with Chelsea spending close to £225m on some big names to make the move from the King Power Stadium to west London, yet of all the deals, N’Golo Kante is the one that worked out the best.
The midfielder played an integral role in Chelsea winning the UEFA Champions League and Premier League in his seven years with the Stamford Bridge side having won the title with Leicester under Claudio Ranieri in his first season in England.
Yet things could have been different had Kante listened to one thing Ranieri asked the midfielder not to do in Leicester’s historic Premier League-winning season.
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Claudio Ranieri initially told N’Golo Kante to stop running as much
Writing for the Player’s Tribune in 2016, the former Leicester manager shared how he initially tried to stop Kante from running as much as he did, a command that the midfielder promptly ignored and quickly turned into one of his biggest weapons for the Foxes.
With Kasper Schmeichel naming Kante as Leicester’s most important player in their title-winning season, it feels almost crazy to think that Ranieri once told the France international to stop running as much as he did, a trait that made the midfielder one of the best in the world for a good few years.
Ranieri said about Kante during their time at Leicester: “This player Kante, he was running so hard that I thought he must have a pack full of batteries hidden in his shorts. He never stopped running in training. I had to tell him: ‘Hey, N’Golo, slow down. Slow down. Don’t run after the ball every time, okay?’
“He says to me: ‘Yes, boss. Yes. Okay.’ Ten seconds later, I look over and he’s running again. I tell him: ‘One day, I’m going to see you cross the ball, and then finish the cross with a header yourself.’ He’s unbelievable, but he is not the only key. There are too many keys to name in this incredible season.”
Where is N’Golo Kante playing now since leaving Chelsea?
Kante will go down as one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever midfielders, with the former Caen star winning the title twice with Leicester and Chelsea and redefining a role that helped France win the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Yet since leaving Chelsea, Kante’s career has slowed down in a deserving way, with the midfielder now plying his trade in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ittihad having made the move to the Middle East during the great football migration of 2023.
Although Kante was linked with West Ham last summer, a return to England feels unlikely for the 33-year-old at this stage in his career, especially with the midfielder enjoying life in the Middle East alongside the likes of Karim Benzema and Fabinho.