Antonio Rudiger praised N'Golo Kante in his goodbye message to Chelsea

Antonio Rudiger has confirmed that he will be leaving Chelsea Football Club this summer.

We’ve all essentially known for weeks that the centre-back will join Real Madrid on a free transfer, but the man himself hadn’t made the news of his exit official until now.

On Friday morning, Rudiger’s entry for The Players Tribune titled ‘Dear Chelsea’ went live and for the very first line, he wrote: “I don’t like goodbyes. But I will try to make this one special, from the heart.”

The former AS Roma man then went on to wax lyrical about one footballer who basically everybody adores: N’Golo Kante.

Rudiger has told a wonderful story about the start of his sporting relationship with the Frenchman, as well as revealing more information about his famous Mini Cooper.

I have to tell a quick story about one of the nicest guys in football. I am speaking, of course, about N’Golo Kante.

Before I came to Chelsea, I had heard all the beautiful stories about him. They said he is always smiling. They said he still drives an old Mini Cooper. They said he never raises his voice. But you know how it goes in football, right? No one is really like that. There is too much pressure, too much disappointment. We are all human. No one is that cool all the time. It’s impossible. 

Then I met N’Golo. 

Everything I said to this guy, he would just look at me and nod his head, like he thought everything I said was really interesting. And he would do this thing … I don’t really know how to explain it on paper. You have to hear it. Every time I’m talking, he would go *click, click, click* with his mouth.

“Hey NG, do you want to go get some food?”

“Click, click.” 

“NG, when you press him….”“Click, clock, click.”

Man, I literally thought there was something wrong