/ 28 April 2017

Kanté humbles flashier players

Kanté Humbles Flashier Players

Supercars and luxury SUVs litter the parking lot of Cobham Training Ground, southwest of London. It’s a natural byproduct of a workplace that only sees its less esteemed employees paid anything below £50 000 a week.

But among the Land Rovers and Porsches sits a more modest second-hand Mini Cooper, which, the story goes, was only given to its owner because he had no other means of transport.

The player in question? The best footballer in the English Premier League.

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Players Player of the Year award was given to Chelsea French midfielder N’Golo Kanté last weekend — and you would have to work harder than he does to argue that he doesn’t deserve it.

The diminutive central midfielder is hard work made manifest in human form. Words or figures (and there are many) could never do justice to the sheer thrill of watching Kanté go to work. Any player who dares to come into his half is chased and harried until he surrenders possession or a teammate mercifully provides an outlet. Chelsea’s No 7 gives no quarter, no free passes — his consistency is on a level approaching scary.

Despite his talents, Kanté has spent most of his career in football obscurity in the lower leagues of France. It’s a fact that many would be quick to blame on his selflessness on the ball and lack of interest in personal glory.

This would soon be corrected after he made his move to Premier League strugglers Leicester City in 2015. Tasked with helping the Foxes avoid relegation, Kanté would go on to become the most important cog in a well-oiled machine.

Leicester were champions, but the midfielder would lose out on the PFA’s award to his far flashier teammate, Riyad Mahrez.

No such bad luck this time around. Kanté beat out stiff competition from the mercurial Eden Hazard to claim one of football’s most coveted individual prizes.

The award was not just an honour for him, but a victory for football. Who better than to stand as a role model for the beautiful game than a player who lives and breathes selflessness, hard work and modesty?

Professional football far too rarely showers its less goal-proficient participants with praise. The last time the PFA award was given to a player who doesn’t burst the net regularly was in 2005 when John Terry won it.

For Kanté the personal accolade will probably pale in the shadow of the potential glory of another premier league trophy. If he helps Chelsea dodge any potential hiccups in the season’s run-in, he will have the distinction of becoming the first ever player to win back-to-back Premier League medals with two different clubs.

Still, he will show up to training the next day in his beige hatchback.