Chelsea buys French midfielder 41 million USD

On January 1, reporter Fabrizio Romano said that the parties had agreed to the agreement as well as the contract, just waiting for Badiashile to undergo medical examination today 2/1 to complete the deal. The 21-year-old midfielder will sign a contract with Chelsea until the end of June 2029.

Badiashile said goodbye to his Monaco teammates, and he was not registered to play against Brest in Ligue 1 on January 1. The 1.94-meter-tall central defender is about to go to London for a medical check-up. He will become Chelsea's second rookie in the January 2023 transfer window, after 20-year-old Nigerian striker David Datro Fofana from Norwegian club Molde.

Badiashile was born on March 26, 2001 in the city of Limoges, France, raised at the Monaco training academy. The Congolese defender played two games for France, in the September 2022 UEFA Nations League against Austria and Denmark. He is the only French defender to start these two matches, but was not called up for the 2022 World Cup.

According to the British Guardian newspaper, Badiashile is fast, strong and not as expensive as other options like Josko Gvardiol. Chelsea did not want to convince RB Leipzig to release Gvardiol, while they needed the centre-back because Wesley Fofana was recovering from an injury. Coach Graham Potter has only three players left for this position: Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly and Trevoh Chalobah.

Owner Todd Boehly is also actively working to improve the team's personnel in January 2023. They promoted the extension with midfielder N'Golo Kante, and sought to recruit the 2022 World Cup winning midfielder pair, Enzo Fernandez and Alexis Mac Allister. Fernandez has agreed to join Chelsea, just waiting for this team to accept to pay his release fee for Benfica, about $ 129 million. In attack, Chelsea also want to win winger Mykhailo Mudryk with Arsenal.