“He doesn’t even take off his underwear to take a shower”- Diego Costa reminisces his spell with Ngolo Kante at Chelsea
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Ex-Chelsea hothead striker Diego Costa has recalled the time he stripped down to his birthday suit in a bid to wind up Ngolo Kante. The Spanish international spent three-and-a-half years as a Chelsea player where his reputation as being loud, angry, and open really flourished.
This is a stark contrast to his French teammate at the time who is renowned for being a humble and subdued player who keeps himself to himself.
Costa, who is currently a free agent, opened up about his time at Chelsea during a chat with YouTuber Canal Philhado where he revealed how he managed to wind up the quiet midfielder while naked in the shower.
He said during the live chat: “At Chelsea, I would try to hug Kante joking. He’s really shy. I would go all naked in the bath and be like: ‘Kante, give me a hug!’ and he would be all ‘No. no, Diego’. He doesn’t even take off his underwear to take a shower.”
The divisive striker previously opened up on Ngolo Kante’s influence on the Chelsea team months before he left Stamford Bridge, with him labeling his teammate as the “heart” of the team. N’Golo Kante has won a number of plaudits since his rise to the top during Leicester City’s title-winning season in 2015-16.
Seeing as how shy Ngolo Kante is in real life, that experience must have been traumatizing for him at the very minimum.
How was Ngolo Kante’s 2021-22 season for Chelsea?
As a sweat-soaked N’Golo Kante reached the Stamford Bridge touchline with 72 minutes on the clock and headed towards the substitutes’ bench, the warmth that greeted his arrival from Chelsea players and staff was palpable.
He slowly made his way through a gentle swarm of palm-slaps and back-pats before taking his seat between Kepa Arrizabalaga and Mateo Kovacic, who immediately engaged him in conversation.
But his mind was still in the game to the degree that, rather than immediately pull on a training top, he simply sat in his full kit watching intently as his teammates rushed in vain to break Leicester City’s resolve in the final minutes.
Ngolo Kante leaving the pitch before full time is a sight that has become demoralizingly common at Chelsea this season; he has completed the full 90 minutes only 15 times across all competitions in a season that began with a serious discussion about whether he would be a worthy Ballon d’Or winner.
His personal campaign has been a cyclical story of injury recoveries and setbacks, and at the end of a low-stakes match that provoked few strong emotions.
Kante has actually been on the pitch for 50.6 percent of Chelsea’s minutes in the Premier League this season and 45.6 percent of the Champions League minutes — but the fact that Chelsea’s head coach rounded down perhaps provides an insight into just how much it has been weighing on his mind.
Kante’s body has been persistently fallible ever since he defied medical predictions to play 94 magnificent minutes in Chelsea’s 4-1 victory over Arsenal in Baku to win the Europa League final in 2019. Frank Lampard paid a heavy price the following season, with the France international registering a career-low 2302 minutes on the pitch across all competitions. He has surpassed that total in 2021-22, but not by much.
Kante is 31. He is unique, and only one year removed from being spectacularly decisive at the sharp end of the Champions League. He is also one of Chelsea’s highest earners, with a salary of £290,000 a week.
Extending on anything like those terms seems dangerous to the point of folly for the club’s incoming, more business-minded ownership group, particularly in light of the health concerns. But how much would it cost to find another midfielder that Tuchel rates this highly?
Whether it is this summer or further down the line, Chelsea’s transition beyond the Kante era is likely to be painful — a reality that stares Tuchel in the face whenever his midfield talisman isn’t on the pitch.
Also Read: Top 5 highest-earning players at Real Madrid
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Aryan Sharma
(95 Articles Published)