{"id":44626,"date":"2021-06-07T16:28:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T16:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=44626"},"modified":"2021-06-07T16:20:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T16:20:04","slug":"kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor","title":{"rendered":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not handed out in 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Kante, who produced a spectacular display as he helped Chelsea to claim a 1-0 win over Manchester City in the Champions League final last month, was backed by Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba, to win this year\u2019s Ballon d\u2019 Or.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting to the development ahead of Euro 2020, Kante told a press conference that the talks of him winning the Ballon d\u2019 Or this year are premature, adding that there is a long way to go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a bit early to talk about it now,\u201d Kante told reporters when asked about winning the Ballon d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of the year, there are six months left. It is not necessary to say today that I deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA few years ago, I was in the top 10. It was the first time and it was nice. But winning it is another story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a great individual reward. I see it as the result of a good season for the players. It\u2019s not a goal I\u2019m working on. Those who won it in the past are players who have achieved great things during their career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Champions League: Mbappe tipped to win Ballon d\u2019Or award<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not handed out in 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Kante, who produced a spectacular display as he helped Chelsea to claim a 1-0 win over Manchester City [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":44625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,4459,3260,254],"class_list":["post-44626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-ballon-dor","tag-kante","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-07T16:28:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-07T16:28:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\"},\"wordCount\":246,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"ballon d'or\",\"Kante\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\",\"name\":\"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-07T16:28:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or - Nigeria","description":"Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or","og_description":"Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2021-06-07T16:28:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or","datePublished":"2021-06-07T16:28:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor"},"wordCount":246,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Nigeria","ballon d'or","Kante","Nigeria"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Sport","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor","name":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg","datePublished":"2021-06-07T16:28:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Chelsea midfielder, N\u2019Golo Kante, has opened up on winning the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or. Recall that the Ballon d\u2019 Or was not ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/img-60be470fc510e.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/kante-opens-up-on-possibility-of-winning-ballon-dor#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kante opens up on possibility of winning Ballon d\u2019Or"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}