N'Golo Kante Reportedly Refused Chelsea Payments from Offshore Account

N'Golo Kante reportedly refused to accept offshore payments from Chelsea designed to help him avoid paying income tax, according to documents acquired through Football Leaks.

Per French outlet Mediapart (h/t Agence France-Presse, via Yahoo), a company called NK Promotions was registered in Jersey six weeks prior to Kante's arrival at Chelsea in 2016 "in an apparent attempt to pay 10 percent of the player's income abroad to avoid tax" on his salary and image rights.

However, though a lawyer representing the Frenchman initially said he would "approve" receiving payments in this manner, an email from his tax advisor to Chelsea executives in May last year said:

"N'Golo is inflexible, he simply wants a normal salary. After reading numerous press articles on image rights and tax investigations against players and clubs, N'Golo is increasingly concerned that the set-up proposed to him could be questioned by the tax authorities. N'Golo decided that he did not want to take any risks."

Christoph Winterbach of Der Spiegel—which has also been releasing allegations based on Football Leaks documents—reacted to the story:

Plucked from the relative obscurity of French side Caen in 2015 by Leicester City, Kante has rapidly established himself among the world's best in a short space of time.

The midfielder's boundless energy and ball-winning ability helped him play a key role in the Foxes' fairytale Premier League title win.

He had a similar impact in the following season after joining Chelsea, winning the league for the second year in a row and being named the Premier League's Player of the Season.

In July, he also helped France lift the FIFA World Cup.