Paris Saint-Germain set sights on Chelsea's N'Golo Kanté — report

It’s been a remarkable couple years for Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kanté, whose latest achievements include nominations for both the FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or honours. Given those recognitions, alongside the awards and trophies he’s won in England already — he’s yet to play a season in the Premier League without not winning it! — it’s hardly surprising to see his name pop up in the rumor mill, especially during an international break. And while Kanté was briefly linked with Real Madrid last summer by the most dubious of sources (i.e. Don Balon), these latest links are slightly more realistic. But only slightly. Very slightly.

According to French newspaper Le Parisien (via Sport Witness), French FFP-wizards Paris Saint-Germain have set their sights on Kanté for the summer transfer window — the same window for which they have already agreed the transfer of Kylian Mbappé for a whopping £166 million. While PSG could undoubtedly fake their way past FFP regulations (or simply just continue ignoring them), there’s little reason to think this is anything but idle speculation from Le Parisien in order to meet their story quotas in the absence of proper football.

While it’s understandable that PSG would be looking to solidify their midfield after losing Blaise Matuidi last summer and Thiago Motta getting up there in age, and they could hardly do better than making Kanté their primary target, the report guesses that the he would cost at least “double or triple” the £32 million paid by the Chelsea in 2015 ... assuming that Chelsea would be willing to sell in the first place, which would be tremendously dumb.