In the Europa League this week, Fenerbahce hosted Nottingham Forest. The Turkish side were very poor, however, conceding three times before the 50th minute as the first leg of the play-off qualifier ended 3-0.
Forest took the lead after just 21 minutes when defender Murillo drilled the ball home, while Igor Jesus then doubled that lead, netting just before the half-time break. Morgan Gibbs-White then made it 3-0 shortly after the break, scoring from close range.
Premier League fans might have been interested to spot former Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante playing for Fenerbahce, and his performance has caused a bit of a stir.
Kante Struggles vs Nottingham Forest
The Frenchman left Al-Ittihad this winter after a two-and-a-half year spell in Saudi Arabia. He had to take a bit of a pay cut to return to Europe, but his salary is still quite high.
According to reports, Kante has received a €14.4m signing bonus as well as a salary of €5.5M for the remainder of the 25/26 season. He will be paid €11m-per-year (€211k-per-week) for both the 26/27 and the 27/28 season. That means he will earn a total of around €42m during his two-and-a-half year stay in Turkey.
With that in mind, fans will be expecting big things from the 34-year-old but on his third appearance for the club, having played twice in the Süper Lig already, he was not very impressive.
For the first goal, he looked every bit his age as Murillo shrugged him off and then raced past him, before finding the back of the net to open the scoring. He was also weak in the duel with Gibbs-White before the third goal, losing the Englishman as he ran through to score soon after.
He was then hooked after 76 minutes, with former Man Utd star Fred replacing him. In his outing, Kante lost the ball seven times, and only managed one progressive ball carry, despite having 16 carries across the game, showing how conservative he was on the ball. He also won just five out of two ground duels, which suggests he’s not quite the defensive monster he once was.
Fenerbahce fans dropped a very strong verdict on Kante’s European Outing
Fenerbahce fans dropped a very strong verdict on Kante’s European debut with the club, and they weren’t happy. One fan said that having him on the pitch was like ‘playing a man down.’ Another added:
“Kante is the biggest con in the history of the Republic of Turkey.”
One more said: “Guendouzi + Ngolo Kante pivot – it doesn’t look good. The latter doesn’t have the same juice anymore, although it’s a nice watch seeing him post a long break.” A fourth wrote: “What else does Kanté do apart from giving short passes.”
Another said that he just wasn’t good enough to play in a midfield duo anymore, explaining: “Kanté absolutely wouldn’t play in a team with two midfielders. It wouldn’t work in Europe.”
One more said: “He’s not getting stuck into midfield, Kanté’s turned into Guendouzi, he’s done and dusted.” A final supporter, rather damningly, suggested: “Kante, sadly, has retired from football.”
Stats via SofaScore
About Author
