How doing tricks on the touchline led to Chelsea defender’s first steps in football | OneFootball

It’s not been an easy time for Benoit Badiashile at Chelsea. Injuries, bad form and signings in is position have limited his game time.

It’s easy to forget he’s been here for a decent spell now – two and a half years – yet he’s managed just 34 Premier League appearances in that time. After looking quite promising amongst the chaos of his first 6 months, he’s put in some dodgy showings in the 18 months since, and been dropped down the pecking order to play mainly in the Conference League this season.

There’s still a talented player in there somewhere, and his interview with the Chelsea website about his rise to the top of the game gives some interesting insight. It all comes down to having a good older brother, it seems:

“I played in the centre of the city with my brother,” Badiashile explained.

“We played all the time. He is older than me, and that helped. It gave me strength and competitive spirit. I had to learn to fight! It was good. I didn’t play football at school, but one day I went to watch my brother training at Limoges, our local club. I was doing keepy-uppies with the ball. The gaffer of my brother’s team saw me and asked me to come and train with us. That’s how I started playing football properly.”

Younger brothers continue to benefit

Benoit Badiashile in action for Chelsea (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

We love these stories of how people get signed from the smallest things – this story of being the younger brother on the side-lines playing with a ball who gets noticed by the older brother’s coach seems to be a recurrent one in the modern game.

Badiashile speaks with such joy about the game – we hope he can find his place somewhere in the game, whether that’s at Chelsea or not.