Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world? | OneFootball

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·21 September 2021

Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world?

Article image:Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world?

N'Golo Kante is without question one of the best central midfielders of the modern era.

Ever since that magical debut season at Leicester City in 2015/16, the 30-year-old has performed to a world-class standard and his trophy cabinet is mighty impressive.


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Kante has won two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Europa League and - most importantly - the World Cup with France.

Not many players can boast a collection as stellar as that.

Kante enjoyed a superb end to the 2020/21 campaign with Chelsea and it was his heroic performances in the knockout stage that helped secure the Champions League trophy for only the second time in the club's history.

He was named Man of the Match in the final versus Manchester City, an accolade that played a major part in the Frenchman being touted as a potential 2021 Ballon d'Or winner.

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But despite his magnificent European outings last season, Kante has been named as only the seventh-best central midfielder on the planet by FourFourTwo.

The publication listed what they believe are the 10 finest footballers who play in the role and to be fair to them, it's incredibly hard to narrow it down to such a minuscule number.

But they've still had a good go at it and you can check out their opinion below.

Article image:Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world?

10. Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid)

9. Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich)

8. Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City)

7. N'Golo Kante (Chelsea)

6. Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)

Article image:Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world?

3. Jorginho (Chelsea)

2. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

1. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)

Article image:Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world?

Fernandes ahead of De Bruyne? Slightly controversial, but the former's goal contribution record over the past 12 months or so is absolutely outrageous, so it's understandable why he's been handed the gold medal.

Real Madrid trio Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos all miss out entirely, as do Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong and Liverpool destroyer Fabinho.

All in all, it's a pretty tidy 10-man list, although Kante's seventh-place finish is perhaps a tad harsh.

But you're never going to please everyone when ranking footballers, are you?

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Article image:Kante, De Bruyne, Fernandes: Who's the best central midfielder in the world?

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