Hidden Gems FC: How N'Golo Kante went from almost never making it to the world's favourite footballer

Kante had rushed away from the stadium and hurried towards St. Pancras railway station as he desperately tried to catch the Eurostar to Paris to visit family. For one of the few times in his career, however, he was late and missed his train.

The Chelsea man subsequently decided to visit a nearby mosque, where he was greeted Badlur Rahman Jalil. The Arsenal fan invited Kante to his home, and while the average, highly-paid Premier League star might immediately decline, the humble Frenchman happily agreed.

"We prayed together in the mosque," Jalil told the BBC about his meeting with the World Cup winner. "It's Islamic custom to invite people over for dinner, so I just asked him. He was alone and was going home anyway, so he came along. We ate chicken curry because he was on a protein-rich diet. Afterwards, he beat us all at FIFA and we watched Match of the Day. It was a very enjoyable evening."

"I can't believe how humble he is," wrote a friend of Jalil's who had been in attendance on Twitter. "He is so much more than just a good footballer. For me, he is a role model as a Muslim and an example of a good person."

This story is not the exception, but rather the rule when it comes to Kante. For example, he once travelled three hours to show his support for a Chelsea fan who had just come out of a triple-bypass heart surgery. A year later, he saw the same supporter again when he attended his daughter's wedding.

Kante does not drive around in a flashy Ferrari, but regularly opts for a Mini Cooper. An anecdote from former defender Felipe Saad, whom Kante played with for Caen, illustrates his mentality perfectly after the Brazilian took the introverted midfielder under his wing. 

"He's the friendliest person I know," Saad told UOL Esporte magazine. "You don't see people like that in football anymore. That's why everyone in the dressing room loves him. He's exactly as you see him on television. He always has this shy smile on his face and he hardly ever says anything.

"I took him under my wing from the start. I once invited him to my birthday party. It was a small party, with only two or three other players, in an English restaurant. Suddenly, he walked into the restaurant with a box of chocolates in his hand, looking very embarrassed. N'Golo apologised for the gift and said he didn't know what to give because he had never been invited to a birthday party before!"

When Kante won the PFA Player of the Year award in 2017, his characteristic speech quickly spread around the world. "Thank you everyone, thank you for the applause," said the then-26-year-old with an endearing smile plastered on his face. The tremor in his voice, the many 'uh's' and the nervousness which became evident from the of sweat on his forehead made for adorable sight.

"This is a huge honour. It's very special to be here, because a few years ago I was still playing in the lower divisions in France. Five years ago, I wasn't even a professional footballer..." 

That's what makes Kante's story so remarkable. How is it possible that this likeable, humble midfield warrior remained unnoticed for so long? To find the answer, we must first return to a western suburb of Paris: Rueil-Malmaison, where Kante, the son of two Malian parents who moved to the French capital in 1980, grew up.

"From a young age, I developed a love for football," Kante recalled in 2023 during an interview with the Premier League's YouTube channel. As a boy, he signed for JS Suresnes, who were then playing in the ninth tier of the French football pyramid. "That's where I learned about life in football and got used to working hard. The coaches there often put me in a team with older, taller and physically stronger boys. I made up for that difference with hard work and tenacity."

Pierre Ville, one of Kante's coaches at the French amateur club, has been asked many questions about his time at Suresnes: "My first memory of him is of a little guy who couldn't even reach the top of the table. He was not even four feet tall, but he arrived here with a huge smile and just wanted to play football quietly. He always had that little smile on his face."

But behind that smile lies a painful tragedy. When Kante – one of nine children – was 11 years old, he lost his father. He helped his mother by going garbage picking to collect a little extra money, while football was his escape, his feet and lungs his weapons. However, as Kante approached his 21st birthday, still no professional club had picked him up. Paris Saint-Germain, located just a few kilometres away, never made contact.

"He was simply too small, not spectacular enough," Ville explained to the BBC. "He didn't play for himself, but for the team."

Kante eventually stood out to one team, French side Boulogne, although he first had to join the B team, which played in the fifth division.

"When I played for Boulogne, I continued to study because I wasn't sure if I would make it as a professional player," Kante told Sky Sports. "When I was 18, I got my baccalaureate [comparable to A-levels] and then I studied accountancy for another two years."

For Kante, everything changed at Boulogne when Georges Tournay succeeded Michel Estevan as manager in the summer of 2012. Tournay reassessed the club's youth sides and spotted someone everyone else had missed: Kante.

"When I started there, I tested all kinds of young players, including him," Tournay explained to Le Figaro. "N'Golo immediately caught my eye. His movement without the ball, his technique, positioning and stamina. I wondered what on earth he was doing in the B team and immediately signed him to a pro contract."

Tournay watched in amazement as Kante continued to run for minutes on end while his team-mates were completely exhausted and collapsed after a fitness test. Kante subsequently settled into the Boulogne first team in Ligue 2 after making his debut at 21 years old when against Monaco. Boulogne did suffer relegation that season, but 'NG' would go on to further establish himself in the third tier.

Kante returned to the second division when he was signed by Caen in 2013, and he was ever-present as they earned promotion to Ligue 1. Twelve months later, Kante was the player with the most ball recoveries in Europe's top leagues, a fact that didn't go unnoticed in England, where Steve Walsh, head of recruitment at Leicester City, was quietly praying that no one else had Kante in their sights.

Walsh also had to clear the hurdle of convincing new Foxes manager Claudio Ranieri that Kante would be an asset. The Italian had doubts over whether Kante was too small for the Premier League and would be physically strong enough. Walsh had been following the midfielder for a while, and every time he ran into Ranieri at the training ground, he would whisper in the coach's ear: 'Kante, Kante'. Ranieri eventually gave in.

"We’d heard this lad had come into the canteen at the training ground," Ranieri's assistant Craig Shakespeare told The Athletic about the midfielder's arrival. "Everyone was a bit taken aback. They thought he’d come for a trial at the academy because of his size!"

Kanté quickly proved Walsh, who had already brought Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy to the Foxes, right. Ranieri quickly fell in love with the French ball of energy as he retrieved every misplaced pass and tackled everything that moved.

"Actually, he doesn't tackle that often," Ville once noticed. "He steals the ball from the opponent's feet. That's something completely different."

The little ball thief could be found everywhere on the pitch at the King Power Stadium, leading to the social media observation that, 'Seventy per cent of the earth is covered by water; the rest is covered by N'Golo Kante'. At the end of the campaign, Kante was a Premier League champion, his the most against-all-odds story among a host of them in the Foxes dressing room.

The downside of that success for Leicester was that their title-winning team was soon picked apart, with Kante the prized asset. Chelsea broke the outgoing transfer record of the new champions when they paid around £30 million to bring Kante to west London.

"It's like playing with twins," Hazard told the press of Kante after a match against West Ham. "When I'm on the pitch, it's like I'm seeing double!"

Kante played a key role in Antonio Conte's side claiming the Premier League crown as he won back-to-back English titles. However, the ultimate prize came a year when France won the World Cup in Russia, beating Croatia 4-2 in the final.

Kante played every minute until he was substituted early in the second half of the Moscow showpiece after he had played the first half while suffering from gastroenteritis. He also played the entire tournament shortly after his older brother, Niama, had passed away, but Kante didn't like to complain and never lost his smile, no matter how much pain he might have been in.

When France returned to the Stade de France to celebrate their title, Kante looked almost embarrassed. He smiled awkwardly before giving the supporters a thumbs up and gently tapping the top of the World Cup trophy. Moments later, however, Kante was at the heart of the celebrations as the subject of a new hit song. Sung to the tune of Joe Dassin's 'Les Champs-Elysées', the lyrics read: "He's small, he's sweet, he stopped Leo Messi - but we all know he's a cheater!" That final line referred to when Kylian Mbappe caught the midfielder hiding a card during a game of UNO - the one 'blemish' on Kante's remarkable resume to that point.

Kante would go on to win the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, but in the two seasons that followed, he struggled with knee, hamstring and groin problems, and in the summer of 2023, he joined Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.

With the monstrous salary he is now earning into his mid-30s, Kante has done a lot of good. In 2025, he paid for a state-of-the-art hospital worth $5m in Mali so as to ensure medical care is more accessible for the impoverished. He also set up the NG Academy in Mali, where young children are given the opportunity to pursue their football dreams.

"We are incredibly honoured that we have been able to show him that, although success in football is great, it is above all important to be a good person," smiled Ville, his old youth coach. "N'Golo's reputation fills us with so much pride, because he is everyone's favourite."