False! N’Golo Kante didn’t get married during his vacation in Mali 

Claim: French footballer N’Golo Kante got married during a recent vacation in Mali

Source: Social media 

Verdict: False

Researched by Alfa Shaban

N’Golo Kante, the French international footballer of Malian heritage, was recently the subject of viral claims about having married back home in Bamako, the capital of Mali, where he was on vacation.

Photos and videos of Kante in casual wear interacting with relatives were widely shared across social media platforms, with people pointing out the player’s ‘humility’ (here, here).

The former Leicester City and Chelsea midfielder earns thousands of dollars weekly playing for his current club, Al Ittihad, in Saudi Arabia. 

Fig 1 – The photo that triggered the viral marriage claim

This report will investigate the claim that Kante got married in Bamako.

Fact-check

GhanaFact traced the marriage claim to an X post dated March 18, 2025. It had the viral picture with a French caption that translated to: “N’Golo KANTÉ with his wife! Congratulations to the KANTÉ couple! I am proud of you. Alhamdoulillah. May Allah protect you and have a happy marriage.”

Fig 2 – The March 18 post about the alleged marriage

On March 19, the said photo went viral, especially on X and Facebook. 

The post that caught our attention was by an X user known as Cool Ustaaz, whose post had been viewed over 784,000 times. Other sharers whose posts went far include @aaswhyllzz (811,000 views), @blue_footy (3 million views) and @the_marcoli_boy (91,000 views).

GhanaFact searched credible news portals in Mali, including the state-owned L’Essor, A Bamako, Mali Actu, MaliWeb, and Malijet, all privately owned, but found no news on the reported marriage.

We further contacted colleague fact-checkers in Mali, who all dismissed the claims as shared on social media.

A British football influencer, Frank Khalid OBE, who has a large following on social media, debunked the marriage rumour on his X handle, with evidence of a conversation between himself and N’Golo Kante as he sent a congratulatory message to the player on his supposed marriage.

“Fake news,” Kante replied in a chat that Khalid posted on his X handle before deleting the original post about the marriage. “It’s fake!!! Just messaged Ngolo, and this was his reply,” he captioned his post.

Fig 2 – A screenshot of Kante’s denial that he got married 

Verdict

The player’s rebuttal and the zero media coverage of the marriage ceremony in the local and or international media show that the claim is False.