For €100 million per season, Kanté moves from Chelsea to Saudi Arabia

N’Golo Kanté is the next footballer to play for a monstrous salary in Saudi Arabia. The French midfielder (32) is trading Chelsea for Al-Ittihad, where he will become a teammate of Karim Benzema.

Kanté will receive 100 million euros per season at his new club, still excluding income from portrait rights. He has signed for three years.

Plagued by injury, Kanté played only seven league games last season for Chelsea, which had a disastrous season in the Premier League. But before that, he won just about everything there was to win.

His adventure began in 2015, when Leicester City plucked him (like Riyad Mahrez before them) away from a second-tier French club. Kanté was the midfield engine of the team that unexpectedly won the Premier League and a year later he transferred to London.

Kanté also became champion with Chelsea, as well as winning the Champions League, Europa League and the World Cup for clubs, among others. With France, he became world champion in 2018.

“Don’t believe in fake news. Kanté is now an Ittihad player,” the announcement from his new club read.

Interestingly, the three absolute big earners in the Saudi League, Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Kanté, were all active in the 2016 European Cup final. And Eder, the creator of the winning goal at the time, was also active in this league until last year.