Who is Benoit Badiashile? Profile on defender as Chelsea reach ‘final stages’ of transfer

Chelsea are said to be closing in on the signing of AS Monaco star Benoit Badiashile.

According to Fabrizio Romano, the Blues are set to pay between £31million and £35million for the defender as Graham Potter looks to improve his back-line, with Thiago Silva and summer signing Kalidou Koulibaly both ageing to varying degrees. Chelsea are expected to concentrate on signing a forward during the January window, but it seems they have got off to an early start as they also look to improve defensively.

But who is Badiashile? We have rounded up all you need to know below:

Who is Benoit Badiashile?

Benoit Badiashile is a 21-year-old centre-back currently playing for Ligue 1 giants AS Monaco.

He stands at 6ft4” and was born in central France. He made the move down south to join Monaco’s youth setup at 17 years of age, initially playing for the club of his birth town, Limoges, before joining Malesherbes.

His career so far

Badiashile was already a France youth international before joining Monaco, and he went on to represent five of France’s youth age groups, including the under-21s. He initially played for Monaco’s B side, but after 12 league appearances, he was promoted to the first team.

Since then, Badiashile has already racked up 106 Ligue 1 appearances, and he is still only 21 years of age. He has also made two appearances for the France senior team, playing during the most recent Nations League series.

Style of play

As you would expect, Badiashile is strong in the air, given his size, and he is not the fastest. But he makes up for lost pace with inteligent positioning and a strong tackling ability, rarely diving in, and usually relying on impressive standing challenges.

He is also cool on the ball and a very good long-range passer, also asked to play accurate, diagonal passes with Monaco. It will be interesting to see how Badiashile adapts to the pace of the Premier League, but his inteligent reading of the game and patience in making tackles should stand him in good stead.