According to Ben Jacobs, N’Golo Kante’s move to Al-Ittihad is a done deal with the Chelsea midfielder set to receive a highly lucrative contract.
. With his contract with Chelsea set to expire this summer, he has been exploring his options.
Kante had missed the majority of Chelsea’s 2022-23 campaign with a series of different injuries.
In total, the French midfielder featured in just seven Premier League matches and played 685 minutes across all competitions.
Chelsea had been in talks with the 32-year-old over a fresh deal, but Al-Ittihad’s offer seems to have blown them out of the water.
“N’Golo Kante to Al-Ittihad is a done deal,” Jacobs reported on Twitter.
“Kante is already undergoing his medical after accepting the two-year deal last night worth €100m per season.”
This contract will see Kante become one of the highest-paid stars in the world.
Indeed, the Saudi League has also attracted the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema on similarly lucrative deals.
, but he will now be forced to rethink this strategy.
Given Chelsea’s bloated squad, the French midfielder will likely be followed by several other stars out the door.
The likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic and Edouard Mendy are amongst the other stars expected to leave.
After Chelsea pulled out of the race to sign Sporting midfielder Manuel Ugarte, they will have to look at alternative targets to replace Kante.
As the likes of Mason Mount and Mateo Kovacic could also leave this summer, Chelsea risk being short in this department.
Frank Lampard still believes that Kante ranks among the best midfielders in the world, despite his injury problems.
“Having worked with N’Golo before, he’s an incredible player. He’s one of the best I’ve been fortunate enough to work with,” Lampard told reporters in April.
” I know the positives of having him and the negatives of not because in my first season here we missed him for some big periods and when we had him, we felt the impact of him.”
“As an individual, his impact is very clear. Off the back of a long-term injury, we have to manage him at the same time because when you have N’Golo fit, he’s clearly one of the best midfield players in the world.”
Former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf has urged his former side to hijack West Ham’s move for N’Golo Kante this summer.
Premier League club West Ham United want to sign Chelsea legend N’Golo Kante from Saudi Arabian club Al Ittihad, according to reports.
N’Golo Kante and Jordan Henderson essentially made the same career choice in summer 2023 but their paths since could not have been much more different.
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