For Mohamadou Kanté, the drop in to the championship has been manna from heaven. The young midfielder, still only 20, has featured in seven of Nuno’s West Ham line ups, scored and created goals and is starting to look the real deal that Steidten saw when he signed him for pennies from FC Paris in 2024.
Indeed, there’s a lot of noise around the young man right now, with a superb in-depth feature this weekend in the NY Times: Read it and see how humble and down to earth the young man is, overcoming personal tragedies at such young age and leaving all behind him to change country and language whilst maintaining an incredibly mature approach to training.
Fast becoming a game-changer: Mohamadou Kante could well have the French national side knocking on his door
According to sportwitness, the young man is getting noticed on the world stage, too, this season despite plying his trade in the Championship.
“Interest in him has extended beyond club level, though. While he’s eligible to play for Senegal, the 21-year-old is also on the radar of France’s U-21 team. That’s seen as further recognition for a player who is beginning to make a name for himself.”
A difficult choice lies ahead for Kanté with both International sides likely to come knocking. Testimonyto the young man’s talent and quality which will develop further in this, undoubtedly his breakthrough season domestically: Next year could be the same for his international career and at that point, the Irons will be hugely relieved that someone had the foresight to extend his contract last year to 2033.
Reports this weekend suggest West Ham are adjusting his deal, rewarding his performance with a more competitive salary as befits his growing value within Nuno’s squad.
Considering that West Ham almost sold him last year (again according to sport witness) , that’s a pretty decent outcome for both the club and the player!
He has some exceptional strengths for someone so young but his progress will always be limited by his technical ability ( control and passing ). He should stay behind in training to work tirelessly improving it. Its why he is best deployed as a no 10 attacking midfielder.
Everyone seems to be conveniently forgetting how terrible he is as a defensive midfielder, giving the ball away on the edge of our penalty area for Fulham’s winning goal in the Carabao Cup, and doing exactly the same against Millwall, for which he had to take a red card.
His goal against Wrexham was superb. Just keep him away from our own third of the pitch.