Rumors about N’Golo Kanté moving to Fenerbahçe are still just that—rumors. His transfer hasn’t been officially confirmed yet. This delay could have serious implications for his arrival in Turkey.
For those worried about Kanté’s age (34 years) and his ability to keep up with the matches, relax. The French midfielder has played four full games in just 13 days with Al-Ittihad. These could be his last matches with the Saudi club, which revived his career after a tough stint at Chelsea filled with injuries.
As reported yesterday, Kanté is linked to a transfer to Fenerbahçe, the ambitious Turkish club that has already strengthened its squad this winter with the arrivals of Mattéo Guendouzi and Sidiki Chérif. Yet, despite widespread media coverage, the transfer remains unconfirmed.
The hold-up stems from several interconnected issues. First, Karim Benzema’s move to Al-Hilal is now official, but it took time to finalize. Then, Al-Ittihad had negotiated a deal involving Youssef En-Nesyri, the Moroccan international striker, as part of Kanté’s transfer. The delay in finalizing Benzema’s transfer has held up the entire operation.
The Turkish transfer window closes on Friday, while the Saudi market shut down on Monday night at midnight (10 PM French time). Both transfers were registered in FIFA’s TMS system, but for En-Nesyri, the deadline had already passed. A special exemption was requested to validate this transfer, which would have allowed Kanté’s move to Fenerbahçe to be official.
Clearly tired of waiting, the Turkish club has decided to move on and issued a strong statement to explain the situation to its supporters, pointing the finger at Al-Ittihad as the cause of this failure.
“In accordance with our technical team’s requests, all agreements with the players have been concluded, medical examinations completed, and necessary approvals obtained. Our club has met all its obligations within the deadlines, and the documents related to the transfer have been properly registered in the TMS system.
However, due to incorrect information entry by the opposing club, the transactions could not be finalized on time, beyond our control. An extension was requested, discussions took place with FIFA, and all steps were taken to resolve the issue. Despite this, the opposing club did not finalize the transactions and provided no justification. As a result, the transfer unfortunately could not go through. We understand and share the disappointment this situation has caused within our community,” the statement read.
It seems Fenerbahçe is ready to close the book on the N’Golo Kanté saga.
