Former France and Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf has claimed that N'Golo Kante is "a warrior", but lacks the personality to become a leader for club and country.
Kante has emerged as a key component in the Blues' climb to the Premier League summit, picking up from where he left off last season at Leicester City by producing a string of impressive displays in defensive midfield.
The 25-year-old is in the running to be crowned as the PFA Player of the Year at the end of the season but Leboeuf, while full of praise for his compatriot, doubts whether he will ever become captain material.
"Kante should clearly be in the France team, but I don't think he has the spirit of a boss," Sky Sports News quotes him as saying. "He is an incredible soldier, and a warrior, but he has neither the personality nor the calibre of a leader. He is Mr Essential at Chelsea in among all their big stars.
"[Antonio] Conte relies on him, but he has never given Kante the role of a boss on the field. Kante doesn't have a leader's style of play. He is not a Zinedine Zidane figure. He is timid and lacks the necessary scope. He is not even a leader when it comes to skill.
"The lad is vital to Chelsea, but he is not a boss as he is not a good talker. He is a lad who'll win you the ball 800,000 times every game. You can sum him up in one sentence. He is the engine, but not the driver."
Kante has featured 64 times in the Premier League in total for both Leicester and Chelsea, winning 44 of those games and losing just six.
Daniel Lewis
