{"id":41231,"date":"2026-02-04T07:15:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T12:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/kante-takes-the-leap-to-fenerbahce-from-al-ittihad\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T12:15:33","slug":"kante-takes-the-leap-to-fenerbahce-from-al-ittihad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/kante-takes-the-leap-to-fenerbahce-from-al-ittihad\/","title":{"rendered":"Kante Takes the Leap to Fenerbahce from Al Ittihad!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<div class=\"byline-wrap\">\n<ul class=\"authors byline-authors\">\n<li>\n<p>ESPN<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>multiple authors<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"timestamp \">February 4, 2026, 5:38 a.m. ET<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"content-reactions reactions-allowed \" data-behavior=\"content_reactions\" data-contentid=\"47824501\" data-nowid=\"1-47824501\" data-contenttitle=\"N'Golo Kant\u00e9 joins Fenerbahce from Al Ittihad\">\n<div class=\"content-reactions_reactions-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"share-button-wrapper\"><button class=\"icon-button reactions-button reactions-hover-button share-button user-not-parsed\" data-behavior=\"share_button\" aria-label=\"Share\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"share-popup\">\n<ul class=\"share-popup-list social-tracking-parent\" data-id=\"47824501\" data-name=\"N'Golo Kant\u00e9 joins Fenerbahce from Al Ittihad\" data-type=\"article\">\n<li><span class=\"copy-link-inner\"><span class=\"copy-link-inner-text share__label\"\/><span class=\"copy-link-success-icon\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"icon\" src=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/i\/content-reactions\/check.png&amp;h=80&amp;w=80\" alt=\"copy link\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>email<\/li>\n<li>print<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-reactions-extended-wrapper\"><button class=\"icon-button reactions-button main-reactions-button reactions-hover-button\"\/><button class=\"sr-only main-reactions-sr-only\">open extended reaction<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-reactions_count-wrapper\"><button class=\"icon-button reactions-button reactions-count-button reactions-hover-button\" data-native-bridge=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"reactions-skeleton-loading\">\n<div class=\"reactions-skeleton-left\"\/>\n<div class=\"reactions-skeleton-right\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fenerbahce has officially announced the acquisition of former Leicester and Chelsea midfielder N&#8217;Golo Kante.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, it appeared that Kante would stay at Al Ittihad after negotiations stalled on Tuesday, but Fenerbahce accused the Saudi club of violating FIFA&#8217;s transfer registration protocols.<\/p>\n<p>The Turkish team asserted that Al Ittihad failed to adhere to the necessary regulations during the transfer process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Karim Benzema has joined Al Hilal <br \/>&#8211; Source: Dispute involving Cristiano Ronaldo and PIF led to Al Nasr&#8217;s absence <br \/>&#8211; Cristiano Ronaldo Goal Tracker: Progression to 1,000 Career Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In response, Al Ittihad later shared a farewell message for Kante on X, confirming that they had consented to sell him and the remainder of his contract.<\/p>\n<p>At 34 years old, Kante joined the Saudi Professional League in 2023 before making his return to European football.<\/p>\n<p>He achieved back-to-back Premier League titles with Leicester and Chelsea in 2016 and 2017, and also claimed the Champions League trophy with Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder was a vital part of France&#8217;s squad that triumphed in the 2018 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, ex-Arsenal player Matteo Guendouzi has also made the move to Istanbul, marking him as the second French midfielder to join Fenerbahce during this period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fan Take: N&#8217;Golo Kante&#8217;s move to Fenerbahce underscores a growing trend of big-name players transitioning back to European football after brief stints abroad, signaling an evolving landscape in international soccer. This shift not only adds star power to teams like Fenerbahce but also enriches the overall competitiveness of the sport on the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN multiple authors February 4, 2026, 5:38 a.m. ET email print open extended reaction Fenerbahce has officially announced the acquisition of former Leicester and Chelsea midfielder N&#8217;Golo Kante. Initially, it appeared that Kante would stay at Al Ittihad after negotiations stalled on Tuesday, but Fenerbahce accused the Saudi club of violating FIFA&#8217;s transfer registration protocols. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3938,40,8648,6285,1827,46,45,1192],"class_list":{"0":"post-41231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-fenerbahce","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ittihad","11":"tag-kante","12":"tag-leap","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-takes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}