Rejected by many clubs, no expensive clothes, no crazy hairstyle or flashy cars - How Chelsea's
He is the first man since Eric Cantona to win back-to-back top-flight titles in England with different clubs, the recipient of English football's most treasured individual awards and was recently described by Frank Lampard as the world's best midfielder.
For N'Golo Kante, the compliments keep coming. He has already been recognised by his peers as the PFA Player of the Year and last week he received the equivalent prize from the Football Writers' Association.
Kante is only the sixth central midfielder to win the PFA prize, joining Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Peter Reid, John Wark and Terry McDermott in the 43-year roll of honour. Chelsea have sky-rocketed with him and Leicester threatened to implode without him.
Yet there was a time when adulation was hard to come by for Kante, when rejection was the order of the day. During his mid-teenage years, Paris Saint-Germain, Rennes, Lorient and the national Clairefontaine centre all took a look and turned away. Only six years ago, Kante was toiling away in the ninth tier of French football, fearful that the sport might leave him behind.
