Chelsea offers a new central defender on this first day of the winter transfer window.
According to The Athletic, the Blues have reached an agreement with AS Monaco for the transfer of young - but already experienced - Benoît Badiashile (21).
With his 135 matches in all competitions with the ASM, to which must be added 2 selections for the France team just before the World Cup, the robust stopper (1m94) will therefore face the English games, the most challenging in the world.
However, still according to The Athletic, the club coached by Graham Potter, had only checked the name of the Frenchman in second position.
The initial target of the Londoners was named Josko Gvardiol (20 years old) author of a brilliant World Cup with Croatia.
But, in the absence of a financial agreement with RB Leipzig, the Blues fell back on the Monegasque, who passed very close to a place in the France group to compete in the World Cup.
Didier Deschamps then preferred his future ex-teammate, Axel Disasi.
Fierce competition at Chelsea
This season, Benoît Badiashile has made 12 appearances in Ligue 1 and 5 in the Europa League.
With the France team, he played in full the last two Nations League matches against Austria (2-0 victory) then Denmark (2-0 defeat), showing himself rather to his advantage.
At Chelsea, he will have to face strong competition in a well-supplied playing sector in which we find in particular his compatriot Wesley Fofana, bought for more than 80 million euros last summer, but also the Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly.
Read alsoTeam of France: "A nice surprise", the first words in blue from Badiashile, Kolo Muani and Fofana
In the event of failure on this file, Chelsea could, according to The Athletic, activate a track leading to another Frenchman, Evan N'Dicka (23) who currently wears the colors of Eintracht Frankfurt.
But it is Badiashile who is preparing to sign a "long-term" contract in the wealthy district of the British capital.