Jamie Carragher has lavished praise on Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante after he helped guide the Blues to their second Champions League title last night.
The 30-year-old was deservedly named man of the match after the 1-0 win over Manchester City, and Carragher firmly believes he will now go down as one of the best midfielders of the modern era:
“This is a guy who’s come to the Premier League and in his first season won the title with Leicester. He’s won the title with Chelsea too, and the FA Cup, a World Cup, and now a Champions League. When he finishes, I think this guy will be spoken about as one of the greatest players or midfielders we’ve seen in the Premier League. We speak about it as the Makelele role, I think we’ll start talking about it as the Kante role when he hangs his boots up. He was outstanding and rightly the man of the match.”
It’s some statement from Carragher but a fitting one considering what Kante has achieved both at club and international level over the past five years.
Without his industry and work rate last night, it is hard to see how Chelsea would have kept City from scoring. His ability to sniff out danger, break up play and set up counter-attacks was hugely important.
As Carragher points out, Kante has pretty much won everything in the professional game and, considering nobody had heard of him when he joined Leicester just under six years ago, that is quite some achievement.
