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Champions League Semi-Final Heroes Riyad Mahrez And N'Golo Kante Cost Leicester City Dirt-Cheap £6 Million

Champions League Semi-Final Heroes Riyad Mahrez And N'Golo Kante Cost Leicester City Dirt-Cheap £6 Million

Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante, two of Leicester City's greatest gems, have reached the Champions League final.

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

The Champions League final will feature two English teams on May 29 but it will also see two of Leicester City's greatest ever gems go head to head on the biggest stage in European football.

Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante were signed for a combined total of just over £6 million and are the two most notable examples of the Foxes' superb scouting and recruitment over the years.

The pair were the definition of unknown quantities prior to their arrival at the King Power Stadium. Mahrez, who cost £450,000, had been plying his trade with Le Havre - while Kante, a bargain £5.6 million buy just over a year later, was at Caen.

Image: PA
Image: PA

At 21, both players were playing amateur football in France. Two years later and they were still playing in the second division of French football.

By 2016, the duo were getting £10 haircuts and playing starring roles in Leicester's 5000-1 fairytale Premier League triumph under Claudio Ranieri.

Image: PA
Image: PA

Fast forward five years and after clutch performances in the Champions League semi-finals while fasting for Ramadan, the pair of PFA Player of the Year award winners will lock horns in the biggest game in European club football in Istanbul at the end of the month.

Manchester City winger Mahrez stepped up to the mark with three goals over two legs to sink Paris Saint-Germain, while Chelsea's Kante delivered two Man of the Match displays in the middle of the park as Real Madrid were knocked out.

Leicester made an incredible profit of around £55 million on Mahrez and Kante, who have both achieved enormous success and lifted trophies aplenty at their respective clubs but now have eyes on the big one.

Started from the bottom, now they're here...

Featured Image Credit: PA Images, Getty Images, Le Havre & SM Caen

Topics: Manchester City, Riyad Mahrez, Leicester City, Chelsea, Football, Premier League, Champions League, N'Golo Kante