N’Golo Kante’s chances of winning the 2021 Ballon d’Or have increased significantly following his Man of the Match performance for Chelsea against Manchester City in the Champions League final.The indefatigable French midfielder didn’t give City’s players a moment’s peace at the Estadio do Dragao in Porto.Kante was the name on every football fan and pundit’s lips at the full-time whistle after another masterful big-game display.“Before the game, we all got together and we all thought Manchester City might get the job done because they have the better team,” Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher told CBS Sports, per The Metro. “But he was the one Chelsea player we said would walk into the City side.“This is a guy who’s come to the Premier League and in his first season won the title with Leicester. He’s won the title with Chelsea too, and the FA Cup, a World Cup, and now a Champions League.“When he finishes, I think this guy will be spoken about as one of the greatest players or midfielders we’ve seen in the Premier League.“We speak about it as the Makelele role, I think we’ll start talking about it as the Kante role when he hangs his boots up. He was outstanding and rightly the man of the match.”p1f6uc7v6f1f2h19cd11jiass7i4b.jpgFormer Manchester City defender Micah Richards added: “He was sensational. He was everywhere on the pitch, he covered every blade of grass.“Look at his desire and work-rate. Every counter-attack City had, he just snuffed it out. He does the simple things really well. He was the start of the show time and time again.”p1f6ucckujkkr1i4l1c9856v1m8ad.jpgKante, one of the most universally popular footballers of all time, is famous for his incredibly humble and unassuming nature.He went viral on social media in the aftermath of Saturday’s final after lightly touching the Champions League trophy after all his teammates had kissed it.

Kante refused to time-waste in the Champions League final

Shortly before full-time, meanwhile, as Chelsea protected their one-goal advantage during the seven minutes of stoppage-time that had been added on, Kante had the opportunity to waste some valuable time after being fouled.

The World Cup winner momentarily went down before springing back to his feet.

It turns out Kante is far too pure to time-waste, even during one of the biggest matches of his career!

Watch the footage here...

Let’s check out some of the reaction from fans on Twitter…

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Will Kante win the 2021 Ballon d'Or?

Kante is a special player and a special person who deserves all the plaudits that are coming his way.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to see him win the Ballon d’Or at the end of the year?

If France win Euro 2020 then the 30-year-old would surely leapfrog the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Kevin De Bruyne and possibly even his compatriot Kylian Mbappe to become the 2021 Ballon d’Or favourite.

Chelsea win the Champions League - Reaction (Football Terrace)