Travel 20 kilometres north of central Paris, passing the Stade de France as you go, and you will reach the town of Villiers-le-Bel. It was here that Axel Disasi grew up, having been born in 1998 in the nearby commune of Gonesse.

Like so many, Disasi’s first footballing experiences were playing on the street with his friends, and at school on the playground’s hard courts. There is a specific memory that springs to his mind when he returns to his earliest days playing the game.

‘My brother Divin used to take the bus to go to football training, and I would wait with him at the bus station,’ says Axel.

‘One day, when the bus arrived, he got on the bus, and I wanted to join him. He said, ‘No, no, no, Axel, don’t come with me’. I was crying. I wanted to go, but I was only about five years old. One guy on the bus said, ‘Let your brother come’. So my brother let me.

‘I was on the side of the pitch watching training. One of the guys got injured and the coach was looking around. He looked at me and asked who this guy was. I said I was the brother of Divin.

‘He asked if I wanted to play. Of course! I trained well, and he said afterward that I should bring my stuff next time.’

Disasi’s footballing story was up and running. Away from the fields, streets and playgrounds where he spent many hours honing his craft, Disasi enjoyed growing up in a Parisian suburb. His mother cared for older patients in a hospital while his father had several jobs, mostly running small shops.

‘We had a lot of cultures and nationalities there,’ he says of his hometown.

‘It was good to grow up with different kinds of cultures, different kinds of people. Today I can speak with everyone because of the way I grew up. I learned a little bit about how different cultures think. I wouldn’t say life was hard, but it wasn’t easy. There was a lot of solidarity in the community. I keep good memories of this period.

‘My parents are of Congolese and Angolan heritage. My brothers and I grew up with this culture. Our family made sure of that. My mum was cooking typical meals from there. It’s good to have this base. It helped me grow up and be the man I am today.

‘I’ve been once to Congo, in 2017,’ Disasi adds. ‘It was great. It was the first time I saw where my dad came from. I learned how life can be for some people. There it is very difficult. Since that trip, I realised the chance I had in France.’

It did not come easily. As Le Parisien newspaper wrote in December 2015, Disasi ‘slipped through the net of scouts’. He did not join a professional club, Paris FC, until a few months after his 16th birthday.

He had played only for Villiers-le-Bel - his hometown club where he had that first training session with his elder brother Divin all those years earlier - and USM Senlis, another amateur Paris club. After one season there, Paris FC came calling.

‘My journey was not a typical journey,’ Disasi begins.

‘I have never been in an academy. I was going to school and practising football at the same time. Then at 16, I moved to Paris FC. When I started there were a lot of normal players coming from other academies, and I was one of the only ones coming from a normal club.

‘At the beginning, I wouldn’t say it was difficult, but I was a bit shy. There I honed my skills a lot. I had one coach who was very good to learn from. I grew up very quick. After six months I was promoted to the next age group. It was then that I realised the journey was starting.’

Mathieu Lacan, director of the Paris FC academy and coach of the Under-19 France team, told Le Parisien in 2015 that Disasi ‘comes from very away, almost from nowhere’. It was an unorthodox route to the professional game, and one not without its difficulties.

‘I was taking the train to go to school and football at the same time,' Disasi remembers. 'I was leaving the house at 8.30am and coming back at 7pm. All my day was there.

‘In my second year at Paris FC, I trained with the first team. I was 17. This year was the most difficult. It was the year of my exams, the Baccalaureate in France, a very important year for studying.

‘At the same time, I was playing with the professionals for Paris FC. So my calendar was around football, not school. I struggled a lot at school. I was turning up 30 minutes late. I remember doing my homework on the train and falling asleep. I was so tired from training. When I got home, I just wanted to sleep.’

Disasi, who idolised Thiago Silva, then of PSG, growing up, made his senior debut for Paris FC as a 17-year-old in a Coupe de France first-round tie. He still didn’t have a professional contract and that did not change when he joined Reims ahead of the 2016/17 season.

‘I was already playing Ligue 2 football, which Reims were in,’ he recalls.

‘They didn’t want to sign me as a professional, so they gave me one year as a semi-professional. At the end of that year, they said they wouldn’t give me a professional contract, so I was very angry and disappointed.

‘It was that summer I went to Congo with my family. When I came back, I was changed. I did the pre-season, I played the first game, I scored, and then I signed my contract maybe two or three weeks later. A week after I signed my contract, I got my first call-up to the national team, the Under-20s. It all happened so fast!’

Reims won promotion to Ligue 1 in 2017/18, Disasi making 13 appearances in all. The following season was tougher going as he scarcely featured, only starting his first game on the final day. Reims beat PSG 3-1, and Disasi excelled.

He had intended to then go on loan to Ligue 2 but instead was handed his chance at Reims. It was one Disasi grabbed with both hands, remaining an ever-present in their defence until joining Monaco in August 2020. Senior France caps and a move to Chelsea have since come Disasi’s way.

What made the difference, then? Why is Disasi the only player he knows from the amateur clubs he represented for so long, and with such distinction, to have made it in the professional game?

‘It’s a mixture of work, confidence, and the people around me,’ he replies. ‘My friends and family are good people. When the times were bad, they were there for me. When the times were good, they were also there for me. They kept me on a good balance. They never let me think I was on top of the world.

‘The obstacles I had to overcome helped make me who I am today. I know the chance I have. I left my parents' house very late. People like Benoit [Badiashile] left home when they were 13 or 14. I was there until I was 18. I have a base. That has helped me be the person I am.

‘I am someone who likes to learn,’ adds Disasi. ‘Even today I keep learning. I would like to keep learning in the future. I want to keep pushing and working, like I always do in life. I’m not someone who gives myself a limit. I just push and see where it takes me.’