Jeunesse Sportive de Suresnes is only an amateur club. Indeed Pierre Ville, club secretary and coach, and Francois Missana, a first-team coach, have to spend some time counting through the different leagues above them before eventually deciding that they now play in the ninth tier of French football. And yet remarkably this is the club at which the man now touted as the best player in the Premier League played until just six years ago. Kante will feature highly in each.
By the time those awards are handed out, it it likely he will have won successive Premier League titles at two clubs, the first man to do so since Eric Cantona in And yet his beginnings were even more unassuming than most. He played in teams alongside players who were older than him. He was half the size, he was half the weight, but he played in all these different-aged teams. At the club they have a picture of a young team celebrating raucously with a trophy.
The youths are energetic teenagers on the cusp of manhood. Next to them stands a little boy, looking on. It is Kante and the trophy is his. He has just won it for being player of the tournament. In the excitement of the moment, his team-mates seems to have forgotten it was his. The photo fits the player perfectly. And Kante is a water carrier par excellence, a vital cog in any team. His manner may be selfless but he is proving invaluable.
Kante bottom, second right was the smallest player in the Suresnes but a stand-out talent. You add something into it, and it changes colour and transforms. He is very discreet. He sees things quickly. It is necessary to be very smart, very focused: to be able to analyse a situation and find space. He takes possession back and 99 times out of he makes the right choice; a great pass and very quickly. It is a small flat where his family still live and it is hard to imagine eight siblings occupying it.
Kante's team-mate celebrate with his player of the tournament trophy as he watches on left. A half-sister plays in the JS Suresnes youth teams.
