Chelsea beat two European giants to the signature of first-team star in January

Chelsea had to beat Barcelona and Liverpool to sign Benoit Badiashile

Football.London understands that Chelsea had to fend off interest from Barcelona and Liverpool to sign AS Monaco defender Benoit Badiashile in the January window.

Chelsea signed Badiashile for a deal worth around £35m on a seven-and-a-half-year contract in early January. The young Frenchman became one of the eight signings made by the Blues in the winter window.

The 21-year-old has impressed since making his debut. Although he was surprisingly not included in the Champions League squad for the knockout stages, his league performances remain good despite a string of bad results.

But, knowing the history around the transfer, it is a massive coup for Chelsea to sign the defender amidst strong interest from Liverpool and Barcelona in him. We are happy to know that he is happy to sign for the Blues and wants to stay and develop here.

Chelsea do have a recent history of losing transfer races to Barcelona when Jules Kounde and Raphinha opted to sign for the Spanish giants despite agreeing on terms with us in the last summer window. It is good to one back over them.

Badiashile has formed a solid partnership with Thiago Silva at the back. The latter recently signed a one-year extension with the club, so this pairing will be a major part of the team over the next year or so. It is a shame that Silva is currently injured and will miss a few games.

For a young defender, Badiashile has the quality to be an excellent player for Chelsea for a long period of time. He is comfortable on the ball, loves ground and aerial duels, reads the game well and possesses an excellent recovery pace.

More Chelsea News:

• Zinedine Zidane and Luis Enrique emerge as favourites to succeed Graham Potter at Chelsea
• Napoli ready to splash the cash to keep Chelsea target Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
• Inter Milan chief confirms Romelu Lukaku will return to Chelsea in the summer

We could see the Frenchman becoming one of the pillars on which the next Blues team is made to potentially dominate the league and Europe.