Such has been the speed of N’Golo Kanté’s rise from Ligue 2 to Premier League champion, the odd moment of vertigo and double-take is probably par for the course. In Lille on Sunday Kanté was presented with another marker of his progress. Among the red-shirted Uefa volunteers at the stadium was José Saez, one of his former team-mates at Caen.
Just over a year ago Kanté and Saez were playing together at the Stade Michel d’Ornano. Two years previously Saez was playing in Ligue 1 with Valenciennes, an admiring spectator as Kanté provided a driving force in Caen’s promotion drive from Ligue 2. Fast-forward to Euro 2016 and Kanté is France’s first-choice midfielder, so precious the Leicester City player was rested among the substitutes in the 0-0 draw with Switzerland at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Saez, meanwhile, was helping with the volunteers, carrying a walkie‑talkie and a clipboard, and appearing pitchside to ensure his former team‑mate at Caen and the rest of that gilded French bench find the correct spot. Not that Saez, who has retired from playing and is doing some scouting with Valenciennes, is in any way surprised at his friend and former colleague’s rise.
“I don’t understand how a bigger club didn’t recruit him before,” Saez told the Guardian. “N’Golo was playing at an inferior level to his talent. He is exceptional – he had different qualities to every other player at the same level. He is quick, skilful, he is so strong, he can ‘fait mal’ when he needs to. At Caen I was the defensive midfielder, he took the ball and ran everywhere with it – he was a complete box-to-box player.
“It’s no surprise to me that he would be linked to clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona. Claudio Ranieri is a great manager and he has brought something out of him that others can now see.
“At Caen I could see instantly the first time I saw him he had the talent to play at that level. When he first came into the team he was a bit shy but the more games he played the more confident he got.”
Saez can also reveal the secret of Kanté’s unstoppable energy, a feature from his Ligue 2 days. “It’s because he goes to train at eight in the morning before everyone else is there, he trains in the afternoon after the others; he just has it in his blood. He hasn’t changed. He’s just continued like that, you can see it when he plays in the stadium.”
After France’s final group game in Lille, Saez was hoping to meet up with – and finagle a signed match shirt from – his former team-mate, a player who still draws a broad smile. “He hasn’t changed,” Saez said. “He doesn’t speak much, he has his own shell, but you can see in his face his character, that is him. The impression you see of him in England is correct. He is just a really bon garçon.”
