Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel believes N’Golo Kante is a bigger legend at the club than even Didier Drogba.
Kante has been a standout performer since moving to Stamford Bridge in 2016 but is not overly praised despite winning the Premier League and Champions League with the club.
Drogba, meanwhile, is considered a Chelsea icon, having secured three league titles and the UEFA Champions League triumph as the club’s main striker between 2005 and 2010.
However, Tuchel believes Kante’s career in west London deserves more notice and claims the France international has been the key to the club’s recent success.
Asked if Kante should be spoken of alongside Drogba, Tuchel said: ‘For sure, but because he is not that obvious, he is not in the spotlight, he is even more important for a team because a guy like N’Golo with the mentality of a helper, a water carrier, this makes the difference and big teams and successful teams need this.
‘That’s why we love him so much, and everybody wants to play with him and why we miss him so much when he is not there.’
Kante rose to prominence after forming the bedrock to Leicester City’s surprising Premier League title triumph in 2016. The same year he made the move to Chelsea, who pipped club’s like Arsenal to his signing.
In six years at the club, Kante, who is out of contract next summer, has played 259 matches and scored 12 goals, while winning four major trophies.
This season, he has missed more than half of Chelsea’s season with a number of different injuries.
The Blues are set to finish third in the league but have crawled over the line, with Tuchel describing securing a spot in the Champions League as a ‘miracle’ due to Kante’s absences.
He added: ‘I think he is our key, key, key player; but key, key, key players need to be on the pitch. ‘He plays only 40 per cent of the games. So it’s maybe a miracle that we arrived in third place.
‘Because he is our Mo Salah, he is our (Virgil) Van Dijk, he is our (Kevin) De Bruyne, he is simply that player. ‘He is our Neymar, he is our Kylian Mbappe; he is the guy who makes the difference.’
