Kante Is A Very Impressive Player – Makelele

Claude Makelele has had his say on N’Golo Kante and Casemiro, the two players who have finally replaced him at Chelsea and Real Madrid.

The former France midfielder has also admitted he moved to Stamford Bridge from the Spanish capital because Chelsea appreciated his role and how important he was to the team while Real Madrid no longer valued him.

Of Kante, Makelele told Marca: ‘As a player I had a different sort of leadership, it came on the pitch and it reminds me a lot of Kante now at Chelsea. It’s about knowing what your role is and knowing where to move and how your team-mates are going to move and what they are going to want from you at any given moment.’

Makelele was full of praise for Kante who will miss France’s meeting with Belarus on Tuesday with a hamstring strain.

He said: ‘You have to like working for the benefit of the other players before yourself.

‘Kante is an example of that. He doesn’t stop running, and he does it always with a smile on his face.

He is a very impressive player, without doubt one of the best midfielders in the world.’

Makelele also gave his verdict on the midfielders he has seen throughout his career as a player and coach.

‘Iniesta made an impression on me,’ he said. ‘He was a very complete midfielder; he can do everything on the pitch. Deco was the same. There are not many like those.’

On his successor at Real Madrid, the Brazilian holding midfielder Casemiro, he added: ‘He is very good.

I was chatting to him in the dressing room before the Champions League final in Milan. He knows his position very well. He does the simple things very well.

‘He reminds me of me. Some people said all I did was run about but technically you have to know where to be on the pitch and what you should be doing. Casemiro is very clever and he even gets forward and scores goal. I never got forward too much with the attacking players that we had in the (Madrid) team.’