Real Madrid still dreaming of Chelsea’s N’Golo Kanté — report

According to a report from Spanish newspaper Marca, Real Madrid remain interested in N’Golo Kanté as potential ‘cover’ for Casemiro.

Madrid’s interest in Kanté is far from new, as he has been linked with the club ever since bursting onto the international scene by leading Leicester City’s most unlikely title-winning efforts in 2015-16. Since losing out to Chelsea that summer for the player’s signature, the Galacticos have kept Kanté on their radar even if their immediate need for defensive midfielder strength had been addressed by the aforementioned Casemiro.

However, Casemiro is not made of steel, although his injury record, reliability and consistency might say otherwise. Nevertheless, Real want someone to share his burden, with Kanté one of several on their shortlist.

Other players mentioned by Marca’s report include Rennes’s Eduardo Camavinga, Monaco’s Aurelien Tchouameni and (former?) Chelsea target Boubakary Soumaré, who chose to stay at Lille instead of moving to the Premier League last winter. All of them fit the mould of a “Makélélé-type” player desired by Real Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane, who shared the pitch with the legendary midfielder at club and national team level for many years.

This is surely testament to the quality of Kanté, but nothing more than that. By all accounts, Kanté’s happy as Chelsea’s highest paid player of all time, and head coach Frank Lampard has no intentions of letting him go.

The last twelve months have not been Kanté’s best, thanks in large to the series of small injuries he’s had to deal with, but he still has three years left in his Chelsea contract, and should be an important player for us yet.