N’Golo Kante signs for Chelsea: Is there loyalty in soccer?

N’Golo Kante’s decision to leave current Premier League Champions Leicester City and sign for Chelsea has once again raised the question of whether there is loyalty in football.

Leicester’s Cinderella season was an amazing feel good story from last year’s EPL campaign. They became just the sixth team to ever win the title in the Premier League era and won the chance for Leicester City to participate in Champions League play for the first time in club history.

The players made names for themselves and became champions together. Many fans were excited to see this upstart band of brothers try to recapture that magic in defense of their title and against Europe’s elite in the Champions League.

The first sign of change came just before the start of Euro 2016. Reports surfaced that Arsenal had triggered Jamie Vardy’s release clause in pursuit of the Leicester striker. The will he or won’t he leave saga went on for several weeks.

When Jamie Vardy chose to stay with the Foxes rather than join Arsenal many applauded his decision as a sign of loyalty to Leicester and its fans. Perhaps that was a part of the decision, but in this age of players going wherever the offer is the largest it was nice to see a player remain with the club that he had made his name with.

With Euro 2016 over and the start of the new EPL season just one month away, the transfer season is heating up. Kante’s decision to leave Leicester and forego Champions League football has raised some eyebrows. Chelsea had a sub-par campaign and went from 2014-2015 Champions to tenth place also rans. For this fact, it’s understandable that many are questioning Kante’s choice. Instead of European football, he will have none. Instead of defending Leicester’s title he will be a part of trying to restore Chelsea’s former glory.

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In the end the question of loyalty still remains. Vardy chose to stay at Leicester while Kante decided to move on. The next Leicester player to be tested will be Riyad Mahrez. Time will tell whether he stays or leaves but let’s not fool ourselves with loyalty. In the end all players are looking out for number one, themselves.