7.  N'GOLO KANTE

He made his senior debut at Boulogne and then spent two seasons at Caen, the latter in Ligue 1. In 2015, he signed for Leicester City for a fee of €8 million, winning the Premier League in his first season.

Kanté made his senior international debut for France in 2016, and was included in their squad for that year's European Championship.

After his first senior goal, French regional newspaper La Voix du Nord likened Kanté to Claude Makélélé in his early days at FC Nantes. After asking the player if he considered Makélélé his role model, Kanté instead said that his was Lassana Diarra.

He earned much praise and many plaudits for his consistently impressive displays for Leicester City, and is widely considered to be a major factor in the club's excellent form in the 2015–16 season, consistently making a high number of tackles and interceptions. In April, having made a season-record 149 tackles, he was one of four Leicester players named in the PFA Team of the Year.

On 17 March 2016, Kanté was selected for the France senior squad for the first time to face the Netherlands and Russia in friendlies. He made his debut against the former eight days later, replacing Lassana Diarra at half time in a 3–2 win at the Amsterdam Arena. On his 25th birthday, 29 March, he made his first start and scored to open a 4–2 win over Russia at the Stade de France; fellow birthday celebrate Dimitri Payet also scored.

On 10 June 2016, Kanté appeared in his first competitive match for France by being in the starting line-up of the opening match of Euro 2016 (France versus Romania). He made the most passes, the most tackles, the most interceptions, and also covered the most distance on the pitch of all the players in that match (he played every minute of it). In the 89th minute, he made a short, forward pass to Dimitri Payet, who unleashed a curling and powerful left-footed shot into the top corner from 2 metres outside the penalty box to score France's winning goal (France won the match 2–1).