Chelsea’s N’Golo Kanté is the hero that football needs | Iman Amrani

The World Cup-winning midfielder’s recent displays of humility and integrity are a breath of fresh air in a corrupt industry

The unofficial anthem of the French World Cup win this past summer was an ode to Chelsea’s defensive midfielder, 27-year-old N’Golo Kanté. On their victory lap after the competition, Paul Pogba took every opportunity to get the crowds singing along: “N’Golo Kanté, Pala Lalala, he’s short, he’s nice, he stopped Leo Messi, but we all know he’s a cheater, N’Golo Kanté ... ”

The idea of Kanté – who has a reputation for being the nice guy of football – as a cheater was tongue in cheek. The lyrics sprang to mind this week after revelations that the player had refused a proportion of his salary to be paid under an offshore tax haven, despite alleged pressure from his club, Chelsea. While stories of corruption and greed in football have come to light in a series of reports from the German paper Der Spiegel, Kanté is probably the one player who has stood out for the right reasons.

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