Leicester’s ultimate top ten players ever: Midfielders, No.6-5

Leicester have been well served by midfield schemers over the years. Our list of the top ten continues today with numbers 6 & 5.

6. It would be difficult to leave N’Golo Kante out of our list of Leicester City’s greatest midfielders given the influence he had on the 2016 title triumph. His reputation at the club is soured slightly by his decision to jump ship so quickly afterwards but what a season he had with the Foxes. Leicester won the Premier League title mainly because they were somehow able to pick up for almost nothing three players who turned out to be world class. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez were two of them. Kante was the third.

Kante arrived at the King Power Stadium in the Summer of 2015, a £5 million signing from SM Caen in the French Ligue 1. Legend has it that he was mistaken, by security staff, for a youth trialist and asked when his parents were picking him up. At five foot six inches tall, a face like a cherub, and an unwillingness to speak unless he had to, this mistake was understandable. Although virtually unknown when he arrived at the King Power Stadium, the football world was soon sitting up and paying attention due to outstanding performances by the diminutive Frenchman.

Called ‘the Kante twins’ - because he was everywhere on the pitch (hence the meme ’70 per cent of the planet is covered by water, the rest by N’Golo Kante’) - his ability to tackle, intercept and win the ball back was crucial to the team. We can only speculate what would have happened had Kante played for the Foxes in the 2016/17 Champions League campaign.