According to Sky Sports, Chelsea have agreed a deal with French outfit AS Monaco to sign centre back Benoit Badiashile. The Frenchman is slated to have a medical and will soon be unveiled as the new signing.
The Blues of London had been in talks with Monaco for a while and a £35 million deal is now finally in place. Since the takeover of Todd Boehly, Chelsea have focused more on signing young players across Europe and Badiashile is the latest on the list.
Wesley Fofana, Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei, Andrey Santos and David Datro Fofana are some immensely talented youngsters that have been signed as the Blues bank on their potential and shown promise.
Things to know about latest Chelsea signing Benoit Badiashile
Benoit Badiashile’s background
The picturesque city of Limoges in southern France is famous for its shining porcelain handicrafts. There’s another gem of Limoges that sparkled on the football field, Benoit Badiashile.
First scouted by local side Limoges FC, Badiashile joined the academy of SC Malesherbes at the age of eight. Badiashile started making an impression in the eyes of top French clubs and at the age of 16, AS Monaco won the race to sign the defender who had showcased bucket loads of potential. Historically, Monaco have been known to have one of the best scouting networks and process and having Badiashile at the Principality seemed the right move for all parties involved.
Initially with their B team, Badiashile now started to catch even more attention with his ball playing abilities and burst of acceleration, both unique skillsets for a centre back. Monaco did not waste time and offered him his first professional contract in 2018.
Badiashile was thrown into the deep end, as he made his Monaco debut against the fierce PSG side that thrashed the Monegasques 4-0. When things spiraled under Thierry Henry’s reign and Monaco escaped relegation by just two points, Badiashile still put in fine individual performances.
The young Frenchman started finding his feet under Roberto Moreno and even displaced more experienced players than him in the starting lineup. Under Niko Kovac, Badiashile became a mainstay in the Monaco defence, often making up for the lack of pace of Kamil Glik.
The 21 year old is now one of the first names on the Monaco team sheet and continues to operate at a high level. Over the past couple of years, Monaco has had to rebuff plenty of offers for Badiashile but a deal has now finally been struck.