{"id":329247,"date":"2016-12-29T23:30:14","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T15:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/man-of-the-year-ngolo-kante-an-unbroken-story-of-excellence\/"},"modified":"2016-12-29T23:30:14","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T15:30:14","slug":"man-of-the-year-ngolo-kante-an-unbroken-story-of-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/man-of-the-year-ngolo-kante-an-unbroken-story-of-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Man of the year N&#8217;Golo Kante: an unbroken story of excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/premier-league\/2016-2017\/man-of-the-year-ngolo-kante-an-unbroken-story-of-excellence_sto5995175\/story.shtml\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.eurosport.com\/2016\/07\/15\/1894892-39893669-640-360.jpg\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">In the 1990s, at the height of <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/teams\/manchester-united\/teamcenter.shtml\">Manchester United<\/a>\u2019s imperial phase in the Premier League, FourFourTwo magazine published an article exploring ways <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/alex-ferguson_prs3781\/person.shtml\">Alex Ferguson<\/a>\u2019s team could possibly be stopped. As the plots grew increasingly esoteric, one suggested a rival club signing Eric Cantona, noting that the last team who managed to win the league title before Cantona\u2019s Manchester United were Cantona\u2019s <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/teams\/leeds-united\/teamcenter.shtml\">Leeds United<\/a>, in 1992.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"storyfull__paragraphs-see-also\">\n<li class=\"related-stories__list\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/all-sports\/big-review-of-2016-andy-murray-redeemed-a-year-when-sport-reflected-news_sto5989354\/story.shtml\"><span class=\"related-stories__list-event\">See also<\/span><span class=\"related-stories__list-label\">Big review of 2016: Murray redeemed a year when sport reflected news<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">Cantona was in fact the first ever player to win back-to-back titles with different clubs and that record stood unsullied until last season when, improbably, <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/mark-schwarzer_prs3367\/person.shtml\">Mark Schwarzer<\/a> did the same. <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/shay-given_prs3721\/person.shtml\">Given<\/a> he did so without making a single league appearance for <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/teams\/leicester-city\/teamcenter.shtml\">Leicester City<\/a> in 2015-16, and only playing six times for <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/teams\/chelsea\/teamcenter.shtml\">Chelsea<\/a> in 2014-15, the legitimacy of this achievement is questionable. Not so if a player making the reverse journey, N\u2019Golo Kante, manages a repeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">Like Cantona, and unlike Schwarzer, Kante has been a driving force for his two clubs. Just as Cantona\u2019s move to United established a new era, Kante\u2019s summer transfer of around \u00a330m was another defining one in English football, closing an era off as the needle swung violently back towards normal. Last season\u2019s biggest underachievers took the most influential player from last season\u2019s biggest overachievers and set about restoring balance in the football universe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">Just as with Cantona 20 years ago, the lesson of 2016 seems to be that if you want to win the Premier League, buying N\u2019Golo Kante is a good place to start.<\/p>\n<div class=\"storyfull__content-picture storyfull__content-picture--picture\" readability=\"31\">\n<div class=\"wrapper-interchange img-interchange wrapper-interchange--on format-16-9 focal-point lazyload-ok\"><span><img alt=\"N'Golo Kante of Chelsea\"\/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"storyfull__content-picture-legend\" readability=\"32\">\n<p>N&#8217;Golo Kante of Chelsea<span class=\"storyfull__content-picture-legend-agency\">Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">With him, Leicester climbed to unthinkable peaks as they secured the most astonishing title of all, and without him they have sunk back into the mire at the same time as Kante\u2019s energy has propelled Chelsea back up the table in their place, currently dominating the league with a run of 12 straight victories. Admittedly, Kante did miss the 12th due to suspension, but since the start of last season his impact is clear: without him Chelsea and Leicester have taken 67 points in 56 games, but with him they have 120 in 53.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph-hyperlink\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/all-sports\/big-review-of-2016-andy-murray-redeemed-a-year-when-sport-reflected-news_sto5989354\/story.shtml\">The year in sport has been one of tumult and change<\/a>, but for one man it has been an unbroken story of excellence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">If <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/riyad-mahrez_prs284956\/person.shtml\">Riyad Mahrez<\/a> and <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/jamie-vardy_prs297841\/person.shtml\">Jamie Vardy<\/a> won the big individual awards at the end of a season which saw Leicester crowned champions, discerning observers recognised the essential role Kante played in establishing a platform in midfield; it was his tireless energy and ability to halt opposition advances which became such a vital weapon in launching Leicester\u2019s lightning counter-attacks. He ended the season with the most tackles (175) and interceptions (157) of any player in the division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">\u201cIn training we\u2019d do a keep-ball box, with eleven of us around the outside and two in the middle,\u201d Vardy wrote in his autobiography, \u201cand I started to think that N\u2019Golo was deliberately giving it away because getting it back was so much fun for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"storyfull__content-picture storyfull__content-picture--picture\" readability=\"31\">\n<div class=\"wrapper-interchange img-interchange wrapper-interchange--on format-16-9 focal-point lazyload-ok\"><span><img alt=\"N'Golo Kante of Chelsea with Jamie Vardy of Leicester\"\/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"storyfull__content-picture-legend\" readability=\"32\">\n<p>N&#8217;Golo Kante of Chelsea with Jamie Vardy of Leicester<span class=\"storyfull__content-picture-legend-agency\">Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">It was this relentless pursuit of the ball and Kante\u2019s ability to generate a heat map which resembled an image of the surface of the sun which gave rise to the seminal description of Kante last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph-hyperlink\">Leicester\u2019s head of recruitment, Steve <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/joe-walsh_prs244189\/person.shtml\">Walsh<\/a>, who helped bring the little-known midfielder to the club from <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/teams\/caen\/teamcenter.shtml\">Caen<\/a> for a fee of just \u00a35.6m in 2015, boasted: \u201cPeople think we play with two in the midfield. I say &#8216;No, we play <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/danny-drinkwater_prs178902\/person.shtml\">Drinkwater<\/a> in the middle with Kante either side.\u201d It was no surprise when one of the first things Walsh did upon joining <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/teams\/everton\/teamcenter.shtml\">Everton<\/a> this summer was to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/premier-league\/2015-2016\/the-kante-gueye-conundrum-how-are-leicester-so-good-and-villa-so-bad_sto5440821\/story.shtml\">try and sign the player who most closely resembles Kante in the league<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">If Kante is ever so slightly less dynamic in <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/antonio-conte_prs179165\/person.shtml\">Antonio Conte<\/a>\u2019s formidable 3-4-3, he is no less influential. Conte, who had never even heard of him two years ago, said at the end of October that Kante was \u201ca complete midfielder, not only a defensive midfielder.\u201d It might be stretching the point somewhat &#8211; Kante only has two league goals in 50 games for Leicester and Chelsea &#8211; but it demonstrated just how much a man who has managed midfielders as diverse as <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/andrea-pirlo_prs5033\/person.shtml\">Pirlo<\/a> and <a class=\"autolink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/paul-pogba_prs222248\/person.shtml\">Pogba<\/a> has been taken by Kante.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">As the centrepoint of the two best teams of the calendar year &#8211; the Leicester side which rolled relentlessly on to the title last season and the Chelsea team who are looking equally ominous this time around &#8211; there can be little doubt that Kante is the Premier League man of the year. Where Mahrez and Vardy have seen their performance levels plummet, Kante has kept on running, intercepting and tackling, enforcing his superiority again and again. His influence has been unmatched.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">Like many of the best players, he is also a man of his place and time. His omnipotence on the pitch and high-energy style make him a rather fitting poster boy for the Premier League, which likes to spread its brand of intensity and speed suffocatingly across the globe. But Kante is also an antidote to the age\u2019s worst excesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyfull__paragraph\">This is a man who still drives a Mini to training and apparently has no interest in self-promotion. A man who only needs to let his football of the past 12 months do the talking. Our man of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurosport.com\/football\/premier-league\/2016-2017\/man-of-the-year-ngolo-kante-an-unbroken-story-of-excellence_sto5995175\/story.shtml\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.eurosport.com\/2016\/07\/15\/1894892-39893669-640-360.jpg\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Amid the drama of 2016, one man only needed to let his football do the talking. Tom Adams pays tribute to the unmatched influence of N&#8217;Golo Kante.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[71,59,70],"class_list":["post-329247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-eurosport","tag-media","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}