Story · France
Vardy Reveals Kanté Initially Did Not Want to Play for France, Considered Mali
Jamie Vardy, former Leicester City teammate of N'Golo Kanté, revealed on his podcast that the French midfielder initially hesitated to play for France and considered representing Mali, his parents' country of origin. Vardy recounted that Kanté wanted to play for Mali for his father, but France called him first. Vardy and others at Leicester urged Kanté to choose France, predicting they would win. Kanté went on to earn 69 caps, win the 2018 World Cup, and achieve Premier League titles. Vardy also shared an anecdote about Kanté's famous Mini Cooper, noting that despite moving to Chelsea, Kanté kept the car and later sent it to his parents.
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