Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich reportedly ignored club director Marina Granovskaia’s warning over extra costs in order to sign N’Golo Kante from Leicester City in 2016.
Kante was the star of the Leicester City side who won the Premier League title in 2015/16.
The France international signed for Chelsea at the end of the season and proved his exceptional displays for the Foxes were not flukes.
The 29-year-old was named the PFA Player of the Season as he helped Chelsea to win the Premier League title under Antonio Conte in 2016/17.
Kante has easily been one of Chelsea’s best signings of the decade, especially for a relatively low fee.
But the data from Football Leaks (as reported by the Daily Mail) claimed Chelsea paid a staggering £10.6 in agent fees to bring Kante to Stamford Bridge.
The two agents involved in Kante’s transfer Gregory Dakad and Abdelkarim Douis received £6.4million and £4.2m respectively.
Chelsea director Granovskaia even reportedly warned Abramovich about the ridiculous agent fees which were over 30% of the £32m Chelsea paid to Leicester for the midfielder.
Arsenal were also interested in Kante but eventually opted to sign Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach for a reported fee of £35m.
Former Arsenal transfer negotiator Dick Law hinted the truth about the report.
Speaking about Arsenal’s previous interest in Kante, Law told The Athletic: “When things reached an extreme, we tended to back away.”
However, considering what Kante has brought to the team since joining, Chelsea fans would be happy that Abramovich was stubborn enough to keep going with the transfer.
Also, Chelsea could easily make profits should they decide to offload Kante this summer.
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