N'Golo Kanté denies he was threatened by man carrying gun in row over agents
N’Golo Kanté has denied he was threatened by someone carrying a gun months after his transfer to Chelsea amid an extraordinary dispute between his advisors.
The French investigations website Mediapart says Kanté was told that his main agent Abdelkarim Douis would be killed if he did not sack him. The meeting is alleged to have taken place in Rueil-Malmaison, a suburb of Paris, in March 2017, following a dispute over a €4.8m agents’ commission following his transfer to Stamford Bridge.
According to Mediapart, one of Kanté’s advisors, Rachid Saadna, along with his brother Houari, confronted the Chelsea midfielder and World Cup winner after Douis did not share any of the commission with Saadna.
Mediapart said it had a recording of Rachid Saadna saying: “Maybe my brother had a weapon,” but that he did not point the “gun” at Kanté. “My brother came cleverly … he did not come [to exert] violence on a small one. He gave him the choice.”
In the same recording, Mediapart says that Houari Saadna expressed this
“choice” to Kanté in these terms: “I give you the choice. You work with a lawyer and you stop working with the other.
Listen, I’m not kidding, either you resolve the problem or I kill Karim Douis, period.”
Kanté denied these threats in an interview with Mediapart, while recognising a “discussion” that day with the Saadna brothers.
“I find your question tendentious,” he added. “I am a football professional, I do not live in a world of thugs,” he then replied via his lawyer.
Kanté also denied being put under any pressure in choosing who represented him. “You take me for an immature person,” he said. “Know that I am responsible, I make my choices freely and in conscience.”
Chelsea declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.
Mediapart says neither Kanté nor his official agent went to the police – and in November 2018, when his contract was renegotiated with Chelsea, Douis shared the agent commission with Rachid Saadna. It adds that Houari Saadna refused to answer questions about the alleged threat and Rachid did not respond to its enquiries.