Ballon d'Or Power Ranking: November 2018

Modified Apr 02, 2020 05:58 GMT

#9 N'Golo Kante (+2)

The baby-faced World Cup winning warrior, N'Golo Kante is having a ball in the Premier League. Yet to be defeated in the league, Sarri's Chelsea have had not many teething issues whilst imbibing the Sarriball philosophy.

And that is in large part thanks to the 27-year-old Frenchman, who has managed to thrive despite being outed from his favourite defensive midfield position. The former Leicester City player now plays in a more attacking role but continues to be one of the most menacing opponents one can come up against and is one of the most vital cogs of the Chelsea system.

Kante wasn't on the list last month but his consistency and hard work seems to still be getting him places. The Frenchman enters the shortlist in place of PSG's Edinson Cavani who has struggled for form and is without goals in the last 4 games.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad