Kante needs to play for big team – Makelele
Leicester City star N’Golo Kante needs to play at the highest level for a “big team” in Europe, former Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele has said.
Kante, 25, has enjoyed a rapid rise over the past year since arriving in English football from Caen, playing a key role in Leicester’s shock Premier League title triumph and breaking into the France team for Euro 2016.
His positioning and skill at breaking up opposition attacks from the base of midfield has seen Kante compared to compatriot Makelele, who won back-to-back Premier League titles in a Chelsea team that set a competition record for fewest goals conceded (15) in the 2004-05 season.
The Blues are reportedly stepping up their attempts to sign Kante, who has a clause in his Leicester contract that allows him to be sold for a bid exceeding £20 million, and Makelele believes his countryman is ready for a bigger stage.
“I enjoyed the way I had to play, this position made me happy,” Makelele told The Sun. “My men, I wanted to make them happy, the players behind me happy — I didn’t need to score, the good things came after.
“This job is very difficult, but I loved it. I don’t want N’Golo Kante to be compared with me. Kante can be Kante. I want him to be more than me, but I love to watch him play because you can see in him the joy. I love the kind of player like that, who plays for the team.
“Sometimes you see a team with big players, but for me whenever a team is winning it is because of spirit.
“He arrived in a good way, now he wants to play in the Champions League. It’s another competition, another stress, just like the national team. He needs to get everything from every experience.
“He still has the same way of playing, the same happiness, but he needs to play in a big team.”
Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Shanghai SIPG have also been credited with an interest in signing Kante, but the Daily Telegraph reports that Leicester are preparing to make a last-ditch attempt to keep the midfielder by offering him a new contract that would make him the highest-paid player at the club.
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