Kante beats Mbappe to French Player of the Year award

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Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante capped a fine 2017 by being named France Football’s French Player of the Year.

Kante beat out Paris Saint-Germain star and fellow France international Kylian Mbappe and Manchester United’s Paul Pogba to the award on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old, who succeeded last year’s winner Antoine Griezmann, received 92 votes to take the crown, edging Mbappe by five votes, while Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema finished third with 52 votes.

The latest award adds to a tremendous haul for the 26-year-old, who has made a major impression in English football since his arrival at Leicester in 2015, and is the only player in history to win the English Premier League back to back with two different teams. Kante, who led Leicester City to a remarkable Premier League title success two seasons ago, then helped Chelsea to the top-flight crown in 2016-17.

Kante has this year been named PFA Players’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, Chelsea’s Player of the Year and in the Premier League Team of the Season, he also finished 8th in this year’s Ballon d’or and was the highest ranked Premier League player in the list.