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Antonio Rudiger has confirmed he will leave Chelsea this summer after penning an emotional goodbye message to the London club.
Rudiger, 29, is out of contract at the end of the season and is set to join Real Madrid after rejecting the offer of a new deal at Stamford Bridge.
On Friday morning, Rudiger published an open letter to his Chelsea teammates and the club's supporters via The Players' Tribune.
"I don't like goodbyes. But I will try to make this one special, from the heart," wrote Rudiger.
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Before explaining his decision to leave, Rudiger singled out Kante for special praise, describing the universally popular midfielder as "humble" and "authentic".
"Before I came to Chelsea, I had heard all the beautiful stories about him," wrote Rudiger.
"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.
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"'Hey NG, do you want to go get some food?'
"'Click, click.'
"'NG, when you press him….'
"'Click, clock, click.'
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"Man, I literally thought there was something wrong with him. One day, I finally asked him, 'NG, why do you talk like that? What's going on with you, brother?'
"He said, 'Sorry?'
"I said, 'The clicks, bro!!! What’s wrong with you?'
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"He was smiling. He said, 'Ahhh, it’s just my neighborhood.'
"See, in the banlieue where he grew up in Paris, they always make this sound. It's like slang for 'yes'. I don't know how it started, but that's what they do there. It's like saying, 'Yeah, yeah, O.K., cool.' And I thought it was so funny, because I'm from a similar type of neighborhood in Germany, but I'd never heard anything like that in my life. The whole time, I thought he was messing with me!!!"
Rudiger then revealed more information about Kante's famous Mini Cooper, which he's owned since joining Leicester in 2015 and is reportedly worth around £10,000 – a paltry amount when compared to his teammates' supercars.
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"Everything with NG is authentic," added Rudiger.
"Even the Mini Cooper — people laugh about it, but there is a real story behind it. It was a dream for NG to make it to the Premier League, coming from where he came from, and the Mini was the first car that he bought when he got to England. So for him, it is not just a car. It has a deep meaning.
"Of course, the boys always joke with him about it, but I am telling you — this man is so polite that he just tells you what you want to hear.
"Someone will say, 'NG, you know what car is really cool? A Mercedes, bro. I can see you whippin' a black Mercedes'. And NG will just look at them genuinely and say, 'Yes, O.K. We will think about it. Thank you, that's a good idea.'
"But he's just playing with you!!! At the end of the day, you know that you're going to be seeing that Mini at the training ground for the next 10 years.
"I tell people all the time…. there is humble. And there is humble. And then there is NG."
Topics: Antonio Rudiger, Chelsea, Football, Premier League, NGolo Kante
