Former Chelsea star won midfielder of the season in 2020-21 Champions League season
Former Chelsea star N’Golo Kante’s performance in the 2020–21 season of the Champions League will go down as one of the greatest performances in the history of the competition. The Frenchman exhibited a performance worthy of an Oscar against every team.
The Champions League official page asked on X (formerly known as Twitter): What’s the greatest individual performance in Champions League history?.’’ Chelsea’s official page on X quoted a tweet with Kante’s photo holding the Champions League Man of the Match award.
Many fans wouldn’t have known how good Kante was for Chelsea, as he had always been under the radar. He did with Leicester City when he inspired them to the Premier League in the 2014-15 season and then with Chelsea in the 2020-21 Champions League.
But the midfield player had an injury-plagued 2019–2020 season but bounced back the following campaign. The midfield player hardly missed any games throughout the 2020–21 season. In all tournaments, he was only unavailable for seven games. Kante made 48 appearances; only Timo Werner and Mason Mount made more.
His exploits in that season had people pushing him to win the Ballon d’Or. The midfielder made 48 appearances across all competitions, with 35 starts and five assists to his name. Meanwhile, in European competition, he made 13 appearances and was named Man of the Match four times in the knockout stages.
One of the best midfielders to ever don a Chelsea shirt.
That Champions League performance will be remembered as the finest in the competition’s history. At the time, he was receiving Ballon d’Or mentions, but unfortunately, Lionel Messi took home the prestigious award. During that Champions League run, he was also voted the tournament midfield player of the year.
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Under Frank Lampard, our season was deemed ended due to our subpar play, as we struggled to win games. Still, such aspirations and optimism were sparked by Lampard’s departure and Thomas Tuchel’s arrival. Additionally, the German manager also enhanced Kante’s performance, as the player returned to the pitch after suffering a major injury and put up a career-best showing.