N’Golo Kante has done his best (and failed) to persuade us all that he’s not the most divine little virgin angel in all of the world.
Due to his blessed demeanour and hard-working attitude, the French midfielder is beloved by his teammates and quite literally everybody who has had the good fortune to come within a 500-mile radius of his glowing, holy aura.
In an interview with the Chelsea club magazine, Kante was asked about his newfound ascendancy to the noble rank of Nicest Person in Football® and – bless his little cotton socks – he tried to convince us all that he’s just a man, a normal man, with all the normal manly foibles and flaws.
I play football and I want to be considered as a footballer,’ he says. ‘I don’t want people paying too much attention about what I am outside of football, what I’m doing, and asking: “Who is N’Golo?”
Just consider me as a footballer, you don’t need to look too much at this and say: “Oh, he’s like this, he’s like this, he’s like this.” Ask me about my football, and not too much else. I just want to be a player among the players.
I am how I am. I cannot explain it well, but I don’t feel the nicest person, on the football pitch or in life, I’m just myself.
If I win, I win and if I lose, I lose, but I always try to give my best in any competition. That’s not because I’m nice or something. I’m just myself.
Humble about being humble. That’s so N’Golo.
We can only imagine what kind of ‘non-nice’ things Kante is talking about here:
- Leaving toast crumbs in the butter.
- Only devoting 50 hours per week to helping out his local hedgehog conservation group.
- Putting empty Quality Street wrappers back in the box.
- Having two spoonfuls of sugar on his Rice Krispies.
- Running headlong through the odd Oxfordshire wheat field.
Y’know, the really heavy stuff.
Any more for any more?
