Farewell N'Golo Kanté, a humble Premier League legend 💙 | OneFootball

“One time I told you, you’re the best player, box-to-box, in the world. Now I’m happy to play with you again, and of course, in the best team in Saudi.”

That was Karim Benzema’s message to N’Golo Kanté on Wednesday ahead of the two French international colleagues’ lucrative link-up at Al-Ittihad.

Kanté’s move to the Saudi Arabian champions (worth a reported £86m-a-year) brings an end to an eight-year spell in England, during which time he won the Premier League title with two different clubs, the FA Cup, the Champions League, the Europa League, the World Cup and thoroughly earned his reputation as the best box-to-box midfielder in the world.

Not bad for a player Leicester City plucked from relative obscurity when he arrived at the club to little fanfare for a reported £5.6m in the summer of 2015.

A child of Malian immigrants, Kanté grew up in the Rueil-Malmaison district of Paris. His professional career began in the French third tier with Boulogne before he moved to Caen, where his energetic displays soon caught the eye of then-Marseille coach Marcelo Bielsa, who wanted to sign him.

But Bielsa was beaten to the punch by Leicester, whose chief scout Steve Walsh had been tracking Kanté for some time.

“When I first saw him [for Caen] I thought ‘is there two of him?’ He was everywhere,” Walsh told The Times in 2017.

“He wanted to go to Marseille. Leicester? He didn’t know where Leicester was. We had to almost kidnap him.

“I had friends in France bring him over. His primary agent didn’t even know he was there.”

On 3 August 2015, Kanté’s switch to the Foxes was confirmed. He was the first signing made under new manager Claudio Ranieri, but Ranieri was unconvinced by the 24-year-old’s small stature, and unsure where to fit him into the team.

His career in England began on the wing but once Ranieri decided to test Kanté in central midfield, there was no going back. His zest and positional awareness made it seem like he was everywhere at once and he quickly became a fundamental piece of the team which would go on to win the most remarkable Premier League title ever.

“We always play three in midfield,” said Walsh that year.

“Drinkwater in the middle, and Kanté either side.”

Kanté appeared in 37 of Leicester’s 38 Premier League matches that season as they achieved their impossible, 5000/1 dream. His team-mate Riyad Mahrez won the PFA Player of the Year, but Kanté’s Leicester Players’ Player of the Year award showed how instrumental and highly appreciated he had been in that title triumph.

It was just the beginning of all the awards and medals that would be coming his way.

That summer he moved to Chelsea for £32m and unlike his compatriot Ranieri, manager Antonio Conte needed no convincing when it came to signing him. “He is a perfect fit in terms of Antonio Conte’s philosophies and the style of football he wants to play,” said then-Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo.

And so it proved. Kanté was used predominantly alongside Nemanja Matić at the heart of a 3-2-4-1 system that year and he enabled the Blues to not only dominate midfield but the entire league, as they went on to claim the Premier League title and set numerous records along the way.

Kanté was a Premier League champion for the second successive season and if he had been highly-rated during his year at Leicester, the hat-trick of individual awards (PFA Players’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, Premier League Player of the Season) he scooped in 2016/17 were a signifier of how that move to Chelsea had propelled him into the stratosphere.

That was the last time he would get his hands on the Premier League trophy, but the following year he won the FA Cup before going on to achieve the pinnacle of any footballer’s dreams when he lifted the World Cup.

Kanté started all seven of France’s matches in Russia, providing the midfield anchor that Didier Deschamps’ team was built around. He may not have scored or assisted at the tournament, but his importance to Les Bleus was demonstrated by his team-mates and coach singing his name during the post-World Cup celebrations.

“N’Golo Kanté, he is small, he is nice, he shut down Lionel Messi…”

During his seven years at Chelsea, Kanté played under five different permanent managers, almost all of whom came to heavily rely on him. He averaged 38 appearances per season for the club and constantly had to adapt to different tactics and new ideas. But he was always there, always reliable.

His highest goalscoring season came under Maurizio Sarri in 2018/19, when the arrival of Jorginho as the holding midfielder gave Kanté license to get forward, and he found the net five times in a year when the Blues won the Europa League.

Two years later he would get his hands on Europe’s biggest prize when Chelsea lifted the Champions League. Thomas Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard midway through that season and the double pivot of Kanté and Jorginho were the fulcrum of his team, with Kanté winning Champions League Man of the Match awards against Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid and in the final victory over Manchester City.

However, a year later, a quote from Tuchel summed up the crossroads Kanté had found himself at in his Chelsea career.

“I think he is our key, key, key player,” said the German.

“But key, key, key players need to be on the pitch and he has played only 40% of the games, so it is maybe a miracle that we arrive in third place.”

Despite a combination of injuries and COVID, Kanté had still managed 42 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea in 2021/22, but the following year Tuchel and his successors Graham Potter and Frank Lampard were only able to call upon the midfielder nine times all season.

Sadly, time appears to have caught up with a once all-action, box-to-box dynamo and his body is no longer quite as robust as it was. In what is a period of great change and transition for Chelsea, it feels like the right moment has come for Kanté to move on.

He will always be remembered as a legend at Stamford Bridge, and Leicester supporters will never forget him, nor will French football and the Premier League. A place in future Halls of Fame surely awaits.

But perhaps more than his brilliance as a footballer and the trophies he won, he will be remembered as a humble guy who played the game with a bashful grin and a joie de vivre. Stories of him driving a modest car to training or going over to a fan’s house to play FIFA made him the kind of lovable, down-to-earth figure that football could do with more of.

His transfer to Saudi Arabia will not only bring him unimaginable riches but also move a devout Muslim closer to Mecca. After what he’s achieved and the person he is, few will begrudge him his big pay day.