N'Golo Kante to Arsenal: Arsene Wenger praises 'incredible quality' of France midfielder as top clubs cirlce

Midfield tyro: Arsene Wenger is among several leading managers to be blown away by N'Golo Kante
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP/Getty Images
James Benge10 June 2016

Arsene Wenger has lavished N’Golo Kante with considerable praise as Europe’s top clubs, including Arsenal, circle around the Leicester midfielder.

Kante has a £19.8million release clause in his contract and has emerged as a significant target for Chelsea and Paris St Germain whilst Arsenal continue to monitor the French international despite their recent £34m acquisition of Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka.

A key component in Leicester’s title-winning side, the energetic and powerful Kante could taste further success on the international stage, where he is expected to play a leading role in a French side identified as the early favourites for Euro 2016.

And Wenger, who will be following the tournament as a pundit on French television, is already a major enthusiast of the 25-year-old.

PFA Team of the Year 2016

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“I admire and like N'Golo Kanté a lot. He gives you ideas,” he told beIN Sports. “He gives you the feeling that the higher the level he plays at, the more at ease he is.

“We are talking about numbers. He has the most interceptions in Europe and by far.

“He has incredible quality. He feels the game, only very few people can do that. He's always where he needs to be.

“It is very rare to have that in the central midfielder. Not always orthodox, but always in the right place.”

Wenger is not the only Arsenal figure to declare their admiration for Kante, who joined Leicester for a reported fee of £5.6m in 2015 and has just two seasons of top flight football to his name.

Laurent Koscielny will be part of the France defence Kante and/or Marseille’s Lassana Diarra will be tasked and he has no doubt the Leicester anchorman is of the requisite quality to do just that in a France shirt.

“For his first season in England... he showed he was one of the [Premier League's] great midfielders,” Koscielny said.

“He intercepted a lot of balls, he can (play) box to box, make assists. He's very quiet, very calm, he's in his own little world but when he is on the field, he is able to put pressure on his opponents.”

Leicester may offer Kante a new deal to ward off interest from European powers, just as they have done with striker Jamie Vardy, who Standard Sport revealed yesterday is increasingly likely to reject interest from Arsenal and remain at the King Power Stadium.

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