N'Golo Kanté is back in the French national team after a two-year absence. And the 33-year-old 2018 world champion is playing at the European Championships as if he had never been away.
After the win against Austria, the French Football Federation released a short video of his return to the dressing room, in which Ibrahima Konaté raves about Kanté's performance. Next to him, Youssouf Fofana nods. "I saw it with my own eyes. It's crazy," says the Monegasque.
Seeing N'Golo Kanté play at this level at the European Championship in Germany, two years after his last games for the national team, has an unreal quality about it.
Wearing his number 13 on his back, the diminutive midfielder was everywhere again on the pitch in Leipzig on Friday evening against the Netherlands, winning balls like he did in his prime. And this despite the fact that he is now 33 years old and has been playing in Saudi Arabia for a year.
Felt outnumbered
As always, he was modest when he stepped in front of the microphones late in the evening. Kanté only spoke to BeIN Sports about the collective, even though he had been voted man of the match, as he was in the first game against Austria: "We had a lot of chances, but the disappointment is that we didn't score and didn't do enough to win to qualify for the round of 16 tonight," he lamented.
The man who was the big surprise in coach Didier Deschamps' line-up still seems to have the breath of a young man and the same intensity, whether playing for Al-Ittihad or Chelsea, as he did in his prime.
Since the beginning of the move, his teammates, both those who are new to him and those who already knew him, have been saying that it feels like having one more player than the opposing team. Or two. Or even three. In a song released after the 2018 World Cup title, Kanté is referred to as a "cheat" because for many it does not seem possible to be so present on the pitch without unfair means.
Against the Netherlands, Kanté directed the action on the pitch, directing his teammates and setting the tempo.
In the 14th minute, it was he who set up Antoine Griezmann like a playmaker for a very good French chance, and in the 65th minute, another of his passes could have been decisive for his captain with a bit of luck.
Of course, Kanté also blocked shots, such as the one from Tijjani Reijnders (28'), or went for the finish himself (52'). Above all, however, he won balls, closed down spaces and ran and ran and ran.
When he was told before the start of the European Championship that his season away from Europe might have taken its toll on his athletic intensity, the 2018 world champion replied with a smile: "I was able to play a whole season in Saudi Arabia. I've got quite a few games under my belt."
There are likely to be a few more for Kanté at the European Championships.
