Story · France
Vardy: Kanté Wanted to Play for Mali, But We Told Him He Could Win the World Cup with France
Former Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy revealed on his podcast that French midfielder N'Golo Kanté initially wanted to play for Mali, his parents' country of origin, before being persuaded to join France. Vardy recalled that during their time at Leicester, Kanté hesitated, but teammates advised him that France would win the World Cup. Kanté eventually debuted for France in March 2016, went on to win the 2018 World Cup, two Premier League titles, and finished fifth in the 2021 Ballon d'Or. Vardy also shared an anecdote about Kanté's humility, noting he kept his old Mini Cooper even after moving to Chelsea, eventually giving it to his parents.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection