It is 2007 and the boys in the youth section at Limoges Football Club are being put through their paces, proudly representing their local club in the New Aquitaine region in the west of France. It is more of a basketball town than a footballing one, but these lads are only interested in controlling the ball with their feet.

On the sidelines, a six-year-old boy idly knocks around, doing kick-ups while he waits for his older brother to finish training. Loic Badiashile is nine and has already been with Limoges’ youth setup for two years.

He will go on to play as a goalkeeper for France’s Under-18s and several clubs, including Monaco, Cercle Bruges, before joining Burgos in Spain’s second tier.

His brother, Benoit, is just about to begin his own football journey, as the coach looks over and spots him keeping the ball up beside his father. 'The manager told me to come and play,' recalls the younger Badiashile, now 22 years old. 'So I started there.”

The Badiashiles hadn’t previously been a footballing family, but Loic inspired Benoit and the two have gone on to professional careers in the game. It helped that the older brother was a goalkeeper, setting things up perfectly when it came to playing football together. No squabbling over who takes shots and who has to stop them in this family.

'Yeah, so it was nice,' Benoit chuckles. 'He is older than me and I think he was the main reason I started playing football. We didn’t come from a football family, but I watched football all the time, of course.'

After a year with Limoges, Benoit followed his brother to another lower-league youth setup at SC Malesherbes, where they developed over a number of years before Loic was spotted by a scout from AS Monaco. Suddenly, things got serious.

'The scout who had watched my brother called me and said that he wanted to see me as well,' recalls Benoit, who switched from centre-forward to centre-back during his early teens.

'I was 15 years old when I went to Monaco and it was so nice because it is a big club in France. It was difficult at the beginning to live away from my family – so, so difficult. But over time it becomes normal.

'I was in the same youth team as [France international] Khephren Thuram and Han-Noah Massengo, who plays for Burnley now. When you see the great players who have played for Monaco, you know that you can do something special by being there.

'When you see names like Thierry Henry, Emmanuel Petit, Lilian Thuram, you know it is a great club. Kylian Mbappe was there a few years before me, I used to watch him play – I was the ball boy when he was playing for the first team.”

Badiashile made an instant impression at Monaco, quickly receiving a call-up to the youth ranks of the national team. He has since represented every France age group from Under-16s up to the senior team, for which he has two full caps.

Within two years of joining Monaco, he was given his senior debut, playing only 12 games for the club’s second string before he was called into the first-team ranks by one of the club’s – and France’s – greatest-ever players.

'Thierry Henry was the Monaco coach when I played my first game, against Paris Saint-Germain,' he says. 'It was the best day of my life, I think. I was 17 and it was a really nice moment. I was so proud, and my brother was there as well – he was on the bench for that game, so it was so nice.'

A young Christopher Nkunku was in the PSG side that night, but Badiashile was given the task of picking up the rotating cast of forwards playing in front of him. 'I marked Mbappe, Cavani and Neymar!' he laughs.

'That was hard! We lost 4-0, but that was such a good experience for me. I quickly understood the level you need to be, so I think it’s good for a young player to play against a team like that because you grow faster that way.

'Thierry Henry liked to speak with the young players, because he knows how difficult it is to play with the first team. He helped me a lot to become a good professional player.

“Before that first game against Paris, he spoke with me about how to defend Cavani, because he knew how Cavani moved and it was really good for me. When someone gives you advice like that, when you go out to play, you know how to defend that player, you know what to expect.'

Up to that point in his development, the focus had been on honing the technical aspects of defending and playing out from the back, but after that debut, Badiashile began to make the most of his physique.

At 6ft 4in, with broad shoulders to match, he is an imposing figure but it wasn’t until adulthood that he fully embraced it.

'I think I started to become stronger when I started with the professional team, because in the academy we didn’t work on the body,' he explains. 'That made a big difference, it was hard at the beginning, but it made me better, of course.

'The physicality of senior football is not the same, so you have to be prepared for that, and I think at Monaco they are good at preparing you well.'

Those were tough times for the Monegasques, who finished 17th, just outside the drop zone, with a young squad.

'We were fighting against relegation and it was my first season in the professional team. It was really, really hard because Monaco is such a big club in France, but that type of experience helped me a lot. After that, you know how difficult it is to play when times are tough, and now I feel like it was good for me.'

Things picked up over the next couple of years, and by 2020/21, Monaco were finishing third, while Badiashile had a new defensive partner in the shape of Axel Disasi.

They struck up a great understanding, both on and off the pitch in the years that followed, and you could see the fondness between the pair when Badiashile scored his first Chelsea goal against Blackburn Rovers in the Carabao Cup fourth round in November.

Disasi was the first over to celebrate with him and, before they headed back to their own half, they performed an intricate secret handshake. Badiashile laughs as it's raised.

'Ah, you saw that! Yeah, it was like it was his goal, the way he celebrated! Axel is like this. He was so happy for me because it was a difficult moment for me when I was injured. Five months out was really, really difficult. And then, when I came back and I scored against Blackburn, it was a great, great moment for me.

'I’ve known him for four years now and he is my good friend. I spoke to him before he joined Chelsea and I tried to help him when he first arrived, even if I was only here a few months already.'

Badiashile has heard his song from the stands, and loves it, although he confirms, chuckling, that he did not arrive here in a Lamborghini!

'The atmosphere at games here is really nice,' he says. 'The fans are really behind us and we feel it when we play at Stamford Bridge, and even when we play away. It makes you want to give everything for them.

'It’s not the same as in France. Here, when you do a good tackle, all the crowd are like, "Aahhhh!"' he says, making a generic roaring crowd noise. 'I was shocked the first time I heard this, for me it was something crazy! Just one tackle and all the crowd is up! It was really nice, though.'

He highlights the celebrations at the end of the Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Newcastle as the high point of the relationship between players and fans so far this season.

'The fans were really great that night,' he says. 'When Petro saved the last penalty… woah… that was something crazy. Even when Misha scored the goal, it was great.

'After they scored the first goal, I knew we would equalise because we were so hungry to score and we are so confident in our quality.'

Badiashile’s misjudgment had led to Callum Wilson’s opener for Newcastle that night, but he reveals that a half-time chat with senior figures helped to settle him.

'I was a little bit disappointed, but the coach spoke to me, and so did Thiago. It was difficult, but I knew with these players that we could do great things, so I believed, and my second-half performance was completely different.'

Badiashile is determined to be part of the process of turning this new generation of players into trophy contenders and champions.

'We are Chelsea and the only way is to win,' he says, 'so it’s normal that the fans expect – it’s standard. We have to keep working hard and, with the talent we have, I think we will do great things, for sure.'

That six-year-old boy doing kick-ups on the sidelines in Limoges has come a long way by the age of 22. Now, ‘Big Ben’ is determined to keep rising to the very top.

This piece was first published in our match-day programme. You can order every edition of this season's programme by clicking here.