Frenchman N’Golo Kanté joins Benzema at Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia

2023-06-21 02:54:13

Heading for Saudi Arabia for N’Golo Kanté: the Al-Ittihad club announced on Wednesday that it had recruited Chelsea midfielder, 2018 world champion with France, who joins his compatriot Karim Benzema.

Published on: 06/21/2023 – 02:54 Modified on: 06/21/2023 – 09:21

Saudi Arabia and the Al-Ittihad club poach a new “Frenchie”. The 2018 world champion, N’Golo Kanté, signed Wednesday, June 21 at the club of Al-Ittihad, in Saudi Arabia where he joins Karim Benzema, his former teammate with the Blues.

“Don’t listen to fake news. Kanté is an Ittihad player now!” tweeted the Jeddah club with a photo of the footballer wearing his yellow and black striped jersey, followed by a video of Benzema welcoming his new team-mate.

“I am happy to play with you again. And of course, in the best team in Saudi Arabia. See you soon in Jeddah”, rejoiced the Golden Ball 2022, who signed a three-year contract in June seasons with Al-Ittihad.

“I’m very excited to play with the Tigers, in front of the fans at Al-Jawhara (the jewel)”, the club’s stadium in Jeddah, Kanté said in the same video.

“Welcome to our new Kanté tiger,” club president Anmar Al-Hailee wrote on Twitter.

Kanté, 32, signed a three-year pre-contract with Al-Ittihad in early June. But the Saudi club had conditioned its final recruitment on medical examinations, the player having suffered multiple injuries this season.

Karim Benzema (left) and N’Golo Kanté during the Champions League quarter-final return Real Madrid – Chelsea, April 12, 2022 at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid © PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP/Archives

“The contract was finalized on Tuesday June 20, after Kanté passed medical examinations at a specialized medical center in Dubai,” the Saudi outfit said on Twitter.

Generous and discreet

“Kante’s arrival at Al-Ittihad is considered one of the most prestigious and significant recruitments in the club’s history”, welcomed the club, wishing “success” to the Frenchman.

The native of Rueil-Malmaison, near Paris, lived through the desert last season, away from the field for more than six months due to a hamstring injury, then to an adductor.

With 53 selections for the France team, Kanté remains a part of the Blues, even if he could not participate in the last World Cup in Qatar due to his health problems.

Frenchman N’Golo Kanté (right) poses with the FIFA World Cup trophy on July 15, 2018 in Moscow © FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives

He was also offered a new contract by Chelsea, which he joined in 2016 and where the midfielder of 1.68 m was able to be omnipresent, with in particular in 2021 a recital to offer the English club the League of Nations trophy. champions.

Loved and respected by all – teammates, fans and opponents – for his good nature and modesty, the French midfielder has earned a reputation as a generous and discreet player, whose qualities as a footballer are in perfect harmony with his personality outside lands.

It was at 19, when he signed in Boulogne-sur-Mer, that his career took off. DH, CFA2… Kanté quickly climbed the ladder, until joining the first team, in National (third division). A stint in Caen will follow (2013-2015) before flying to England and glory in Leicester, where he won the title in 2016, then Chelsea, and today Al-Ittihad.

See also Football: in Saudi Arabia, sport as a diplomatic weapon

N’Golo Kanté finds Karim Benzema, 35, there, welcomed with great fanfare in early June in Jeddah by tens of thousands of supporters of Al-Ittihad, after 14 seasons at Real Madrid. And this a few months after the thunderous arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo in this country which launched a major offensive on several football stars playing in Europe, including the Argentinian Lionel Messi who finally chose Inter Miami, in the United States.

The kingdom, criticized for human rights abuses, is determined to use football to improve its international image and has petrodollars galore to fulfill its ambitions.

The transfers of world football stars testify to the scale of the sporting ambitions of the monarchy, which plans to apply to organize the 2030 World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Saudi Arabia will also host the 2027 Asian Men’s Football Cup, the 2034 Asian Games, and even the 2029 Asian Winter Games, the awarding of which, considered by some to be an ecological aberration, was greeted with amazement. by the sports world.

With AFP