N’Golo’s a firecracker a
KING KANTE LIGHTS BLUE TOUCHPAPER TO BLAST CONTE & CO THROUGH TO FINAL
PICTURE the scene. The 1998 World Cup was launched in a blaze of euphoric glory and on the outskirts of Paris, N’Golo Kante stood starry-eyed.
Kante, just seven, was mesmerised and his love for football blossomed with every colourful, celebratory rocket launched into the night skies.
Now, 19 years on, Kante is creating fireworks of his own, lighting up the heavens wherever he takes his awesome midfield skills.
Kante is now the superstar he never dreamed he would become after so many rejections in his early life.
The big boys did not want to know the little lad who took to rugby and basketball to beef up his diminutive frame.
“I tried a lot of times to go into an academy of a professional club but I always missed out,” he said. “They said they had players like me or they didn’t like me.”
Boulogne gambled on him making the grade when he was 19 and he commuted to training on a kick scooter.
And their judgment was spot-on with Leicester reaping the rewards of his undisputed talent to lift the Premier League title last May.
Chelsea hope to follow suit with Kante in brilliant, spellbinding form since his £32million summer move and in the running to pick up the PFA Player of the Year Award tonight.
Now Kante is the crackerjack supreme but also remembering those early days when being where he is now looked so far out of reach as France won that World Cup.
Kante said: “In school we talked about that all the time. There were fireworks in the town and everyone was behind the national team. Those are my first memories of football.”
Fast forward to 2017 and he is making memories of his own with a typical display in the FA Cup Semi-Final. Dogged in the middle of the park. Terrific in the tackle. Dynamic in the Tottenham penalty area.
And Kante was all aglow following Chelsea’s lightning-quick start with that breathtaking early goal from Willian whose free-kick bulged the net in front of gutted Spurs fans. Oh, how his boss Antonio Conte loved that, along with the blue half of Wembley, as a light aircraft buzzed the stadium flying an “Antonio, Antonio” banner.
Chelsea were on cloud nine too in those opening rounds of combat with Spurs unable to come to terms with their aggression, pace and passion.
But Conte’s crew were brought down to earth with a bump when Harry Kane stooped to conquer with a clever header into the bottom corner.
It came as a real body blow as Spurs gained the ascendancy in a non-stop semi-final of action and drama.
But just when it looked like it was one-way traffic, who else but Kante played a major role in Chelsea’s second before the break? His measured pass to Victor Moses led to Heung-Min Son’s controversial part in the penalty.
Willian made no mistake from the spot and pocket-rocket Kante exerted all his energy trying to jump up high enough to hug his team-mate.
Cue fireworks in the Tottenham ranks with every man in white confronting referee Martin Atkinson in blazing protests.
Chelsea kept their cool and Kante resumed his Little General role in the heart of the action.
But even he was stretched too far in Spurs’ build-up for their second equaliser through Dele Alli and again it was game on as the pace hotted up.
Kante played his full-blooded role to the bitter end and was seeing stars once more when substitute Eden Hazard squeezed in Chelsea’s crucial third goal through a ruck of legs.
And Nemanja Matic had the privilege of scoring the most talked about goal with a thunderbolt into the top corner.
The firework party had well and truly begun. And stand by now for Chelsea lighting the blue touch paper when they return to Wembley for their fitting place in the final. Kante can’t wait.