N’Golo Kante Was Involved In A Car Crash But Still Stopped For Fan Photos As He Was Too Polite To Say No

Cesc Fabregas has shared a hilarious story of how N'Golo Kante was late for a Chelsea meeting because he was involved in a car crash, then stopped to take photos with fans at the roadside as he was too polite to say no.

The France midfielder is famed for the beloved Mini Cooper he drove for years and humble image, which he insists is overblown. But his nice-guy status was confirmed by his former Blues colleague Fabregas.

Kante was - unusually - late for a Chelsea meeting in 2018, ahead of a Carabao Cup tie against Arsenal. The reason? His Mini had collided with a lorry on the King's Road, knocking off a wing mirror and causing damage to his car.

However as Kante waited by the roadside for recovery services, he was approached by eager football fans. So naturally he just obliged each request for selfies, despite his recent run-in with a lorry.

"'Everybody knows he is a really good human being," wrote Fabregas in the Telegraph.

"One day, we [the team] met in the morning, we were playing at night, and everyone was, 'Where's N'Golo, where's N'Golo?' We're starting the meeting and normally he was always on time.

"Eventually, he arrived and everyone started clapping and Antonio [Rudiger] said, 'What's happened?'

"And he was telling us that he's had a car crash and some people couldn't believe it was him and they were taking pictures and he wanted to be polite.

"His car was all damaged and the wing mirror had to be taped back on, but he still stopped for photographs, even though it made him late!"

Although Kante has tried to play down stories of his selfless acts, his teammates seem determined to keep telling stories of the 30-year-old's everyman nature.

Explaining his choice of car to the BBC, the 2018 World Cup winner once said: "I was at Leicester City and it was my first car in England. One person advised a Mini, I tried and I liked it so I bought one."

Kante, the man of the match in Chelsea's Champions League final victory over Manchester City, will likely be a key part of France's Euro 2020 campaign, which begins against Germany on Tuesday night.

That is, unless every fan stops to ask him for a photo and he politely obliges, even as kick-off looms.

Image credit: PA Images

Topics: Chelsea, Cesc Fabregas, France, N'Golo Kante

Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a writer at SPORTbible who’s previously strung words together for FourFourTwo, Boxing News, The Guardian and, yes, Cruise International (it’s about big ships, not Tom). Interests range from football and boxing to real sports like WWE and darts. He is not a cage fighter.

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