mr nice guy
N’Golo Kante might challenge for the Ballon d’Or but Chelsea star is already football’s most universally loved player thanks to his relatable and humble personality
Why can’t everyone be more like N’Golo Kante?
Brilliant, happy and humble: the world would just be a better place if it was filled with millions of little Kantes.
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It can be hard to believe there's just one.
In fact, millions of little Kantes probably run around the heads of Manchester City's midfielders when they go to sleep.
But besides the victims of his four consecutive Man of the Match displays to help Chelsea win the Champions League - when Kante smiles, the world smiles with him.
We'll go right out there and say it: there is nobody in world football more universally loved than the tiny destroyer.
You know why? Because he is football in its purest form.
An almost child-like desire to run around and tackle, with a smile that comes from the simple joy of winning.
He is the holding-midfield role personified, crucially significant without requiring any reward.
There are no gimmicks with Kante, no ulterior motives, just a really lovely bloke being extraordinarily good at what he does.
This is the only person in football ever to emerge from a Football Leaks article with their reputation enhanced, after it was revealed he refuses to have his Chelsea image rights paid through a tax haven in 2018.
This is a guy who accepted a stranger’s invitation to play FIFA and watch Match of the Day over a curry with his mates after missing the Eurostar and went to the wedding of a Chelsea fan's daughter.
This is a player who didn't know he needed a car when he arrived at Leicester in 2015, instead thinking it was possible to run to and from training.
After being persuaded to buy some wheels, his choice? A Mini Cooper which he still drives today, despite crashing it in 2018. He could buy five of them with a week's wages, but he doesn't need to.
While Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is sat in his £3million LaFerrari, which apparently isn't fast enough to get him to a north London derby on time, Kante is leaving Stamford Bridge mobbed by hundreds of adoring fans in his Mini.
People just relate to that kind of stuff.
As the France players raced to get their photos with the famous World Cup trophy in 2018, Kante was too shy to ask, and Stephen N'Zonzi sorted it on his behalf.
When the players led a chant of his name along with the entire Stade de France at the homecoming parade, Kante retreated from the attention with a shy grin, which still lit up the stadium.
There are photos of the Frenchman at his childhood club JS Suresnes, standing to the side as his teammates celebrate.
The Blues made sure he got his turn last Saturday in Porto - and those were the photos which made everyone smile the most.
Zouma lifted Kante aloft at the full-time whistle and again during the trophy lift, as if the midfielder himself was the true prize.
Maybe it's because he used to pick up rubbish with his dad on the streets of Paris, a humble background which placed emphasis on selflessness and work rate.
It wasn't until his mid-twenties, in a Leicester team who had just survived Premier League relegation, when he got his big break in football after playing in France's lower leagues.
But nurture aside, nature had Kante had down as one of its introverts from day one.
He doesn't speak much. Never complains. And just does what is asked of him.
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Footballers who make less noise tend to find it harder to reach the top of a world full of show ponies - but Kante is so good that everyone else does the talking for him.
He could probably claim to be the favourite for this year's Ballon d'Or, especially if France do well at the Euros.
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Better still, as a Premier League champion with two different clubs and now a Champions League winner, the former PFA Player of the Year might just be one of the best foreign imports England has ever seen, up there with the likes of Thierry Henry.
He'd never say, though, because he's just not like that.
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