With N’Golo Kanté looking unlikely to renew his contract at Chelsea, the expectation is that the Frenchman will leave on a free at the end of the season.
The ability to sign such a good player for no fee as attracted a lot of attention from clubs around Europe, including Barcelona, who are prioritising such transfers due to a general lack of funds.
Sport on Sunday had a big article on their interest on the Chelsea star, and made it clear from the off that the La Liga side are ‘advancing a lot to position themselves to sign N’Golo Kanté for next season at zero cost’.
In fact, the midfielder has been ‘in contact with the Blaugrana club for weeks’ and the belief is that the ‘bases of the agreement are practically closed’ all depending on how he recovers from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the World Cup in Qatar.
It’s recalled there was already contact last summer between the two parties, but Barcelona had other priorities at the time.
Now, the player ‘wants to leave the Premier League’ and is expected to turn down any renewal attempts Chelsea put in front of him.
Things are going so well between Barcelona and the Blues man that if he recovers well, ‘in January it could be closed’.
Xavi, down his end, ‘likes the Kanté option to provide physicality and seniority to an area of the field that is led by the youngest players on the team’.
While he earns a lot of money at Chelsea, any transfer to Barcelona would see that income reduced drastically, and while there is competition from other clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, the La Liga giants do have the advantage that Kanté ‘would now prioritise playing in the Spanish league’.
