The midfielder grew up playing for JS Suresnes, a small club near Paris, clocking in over a decade of time spent with the team before moving on to third-division outfit Boulogne before his teenage years were up.
Fast forward a mere seven years and Kante is now at Chelsea, on course to securing back-to-back Premier League titles.
Frank Leboeuf recently said Kante will "in you the ball 800,000 times every game" and now former coach Piotr Wojtyna has shed light on the formative years of the Player of the Year favourite.
"He was very receptive to coaching - with tactical information or positioning, where to be on the field," Wojtyna told BBC Sport.
"He always listened very carefully and the decisions he made on the pitch were very intelligent. I always put him with the weakest kids because his efforts counted for double."
Chelsea, and Kante, are next in action on Saturday when they host resurgent London rivals Crystal Palace.
