Vardy Reveals: We Persuaded Kante to Represent France Instead of Mali

English striker Jamie Vardy has revealed that his former Leicester City teammate, N'Golo Kante, initially leaned towards representing Mali in honor of his father, before receiving a call-up from the French national team.

Vardy stated: "The crazy thing is that N'Golo Kanté originally didn't want to represent France. He wanted to play for the Mali national team for his father, but France called him up before Mali did."

He added: "We, the Leicester players, advised him to play for France, and we said to him: What are you doing? France will win the World Cup."

Indeed, Kante chose to represent the French national team, contributing to the "Les Bleus" winning the 2018 World Cup, after previously expressing a desire to play for Mali before changing his stance following a call-up from coach Didier Deschamps.