N’Golo Kante is closing in on the end of his current contract with Chelsea, and while the last few months of whispers have made it seem likely that he would sign a new short team deal and stay put, the wind has been blowing in the other direction more recently.
The Evening Standard say he’s now a top target for Saudi Arabian clubs, who want to follow their coups of securing Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo with a player apparently “viewed as a Muslim role model.”
The projects there are as much to do with image as football, and they would rather have big names (and in particular, it seems, big Muslim names) than trying to build a functional side.
Kante would be perfect – he’s world famous and has won every trophy in the game, but is also a defensively minded midfielder, helping them avoid the inevitable top-heaviness that most super-teams get.
Both the Al Nassr side which Ronaldo is playing for and the Al Ittihad team which are closing in on Benzema would be keen to sign Kante, and his chances of staying at Chelsea seem to be dwindling fast.
That only increases the importance of signing at least one midfielder ourselves, with Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek also strongly linked with impending exits from the club as soon as this week and Jorginho having departed for Arsenal in January.
