Benoit Badiashile: How will defender fit in at Chelsea?

The Blues have reached an agreement with Ligue 1 club AS Monaco to sign Benoit Badiashile for a sum of around €38 million.

The West London giants have already signed David Datro Fofana, Andrey Santos and are set to bolster their defensive ranks with Badiashile.

At just 21 years of age, Badiashile is regarded as one of the finest young defenders in the world. Badiashile came through AS Monaco’s youth ranks and made his debut back in November 2018 in a 4-0 loss against PSG.

He has since made a total of 135 appearances for PSG scoring six goals and provided three assists in the process. He is also capped twice for France at senior level.

Badiashile is a modern-day ball playing centre-back who excels on the ball. Blessed with a frame of 6 feet 4 inches, the Frenchman quite naturally excels in the air. His stock has been extremely high for another reason and that is he is left-footed.

Chelsea have been chasing a left-footed centre-back for a long time now and were linked with the likes of RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Evan N’Dicka and Bayer Leverkusen’s Piero Hincapie in recent times.

Badiashile ends the Blues’ long pursuit for a left-footed central defender. Chelsea have only four options at the heart of the defence right now in the form of Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly, Wesley Fofana, and Trevoh Chalobah.

Silva is 38 years of age and it’s time for the Blues to look for long-term replacements of the Brazilian. Meanwhile, Fofana has also struggled with injuries since his arrival at Chelsea.

Badiashile will be a huge boost for Graham Potter who likes to tweak his system often and field three at the back. Badiashile should be a solid long-term solution for Chelsea and also for a decent price.