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.
Benoit Badiashile style of play
Badiashile can be best described as an efficient ball playing centre back. He operates with the ball with relative ease, as per the eye test. The 21 year old is excellent at ticking the play and rotating the ball around. Badiashile also has a knack of picking out wingers effectively through long balls, thus making switching play transitions look easy.
Badiashile can be one of the pillars of the team when building from the back and uses his neat distribution skills with awareness to pick out the right pass. Under Kovac, Monaco could be easily adjudged as a possession based side and it is no surprise why Badiashile excelled in Kovac’s system.
The youngster also possesses lightning quick acceleration which allows him to make up for any initially committed errors. Physically, Badiashile’s towering figure gives him the edge in aerial duels and allows him to bully the opposition.
His ability to read the game and position himself around the attackers is another great asset. At times, he does look error prone but at 21, he still has time and talent on his side to learn the trick of the trade.
Badiashile is the perfect candidate to be the sweeper in the team. His passing skillsets are on an upward trajectory and they will only improve as Badiashile progresses and matures in his career.
There is a reason why clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester United were proactively tracking Badiashile. With Chelsea winning the race, they have acquired a gem of a defender who will continue to sparkle if given the right incubation.
What can Benoit Badiashile offer to Chelsea?
Under Graham Potter, Chelsea need a rock solid ball playing centre back and Badiashile ticks almost all the boxes. Certain aspects of his game are very well suited for Chelsea’s current system, especially his passing and distribution.
The left footed defender feels at home when playing in a back four, so transition to Chelsea might not be such an arduous task. The Blues haven’t had a reliable left footed centre back for a long time and it finally feels that they have hit a jackpot with Badiashile. The 21 year old plays a key role in starting the attack from the back at Monaco, something that he’ll be expected to do even at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea have ferocious wide attackers in Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic, and Badiashile is well known for threading long balls to wingers on the touchline so they can proceed to do their bit in the attack.
The Frenchman is usually the last man in the defence and can be given the role of a sweeper in this Chelsea side. With Kalidou Koulibaly not having a seamless start to his Chelsea career and Thiago Silva still marshaling the defence, the presence of Badiashile will add pace, agility and assuredness in the backline.
For sure there are some facets of his game that need improvements and there’s no reason to not believe that he cannot evolve further at Chelsea.