Aston Villa completed their January transfer business late on Deadline Day, with France defender Axel Disasi arriving on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season.
A full international with five Les Bleus caps , Disasi joins Villa having made 61 appearances for the West London outfit since the start of last season.
The 26-year-old Parisian began his career with Ligue 2 outfit Paris FC, then spending four years at Reims and later joining Monaco, where he made 99 Ligue 1 appearances, before moving to Stamford Bridge last summer.
Born in the French capital’s north-eastern commune of Gonesse, in the Val-d'Oise department, Disasi represented local side Villiers-le-Bel JS from the age of eight, followed by a year at USM Senlis.
He was snapped up by Paris FC in 2014, spending time in the academy before turning professional and making his first-team bow in a 1-0 defeat to Lens in December 2016.
A move to Reims quickly ensued, where he started to break into the first team, making 13 senior appearances in 2017/18 as the side took Ligue 2 by storm, winning the title having finished the season 15 points clear at the top of the table.
Still just 20, Disasi continued to impress, and was called to France’s Under-20s having briefly represented DR Congo at the same age level.
Another two seasons followed at Reims, with 27 Ligue 1 appearances in the 2019/20 campaign which would go on to be cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reims had no complaints, however, as a sixth-placed finish saw them secure Europa League qualification, and solid defensive displays earned Disasi a move to Monaco in the summer of 2020.
His first match for his new club, poignantly, came against his former side Reims. Having fallen 2-0 down at home, Monaco fought back to earn a point in a 2-2 draw. Disasi himself netted the first goal, flicking a header home from a corner, before Benoît Badiashile – who he went on to be reunited with at Chelsea – notched the equaliser.
Disasi featured in 29 of the 38 available league games in the principality in his first season, also being bestowed with the captain’s armband on six occasions.
The following season brought more or the same, and better. After finishing third with 78 points, their highest league finish since 2018, a second-consecutive third-placed finish came in 2021/22. Disasi played 32 league games and captained Monaco in eight.
His form saw him called up to the French national team for the very first time in November 2022, as Didier Deschamps took Disasi along to the winter World Cup in Qatar, following Presnel Kimpembe’s withdrawal through injury.
He made his debut in the group stage meeting with Tunisia, playing the full 90 minutes and becoming the first French international debutant during a World Cup since 1966, before appearing in the round of 16 against Poland, and in the final against Argentina, picking up a runners-up medal.
Disasi finished the 2022/23 campaign as the only outfield Monaco player to appear in all 38 Ligue 1 games, with only two league-wide outfielders picking up more minutes.
A superb season also saw him place more minutes in Europe on his CV – 750 to be exact, in the Europa League. He was an ever-present as Monaco bowed out at the round of 32 stage, with goals against Bayer Leverkusen and Trabzonspor.
The summer of 2023 brought a new challenge for Disasi, making the short trip across the Channel to England, and Chelsea.
He made an instant impact in the capital, scoring – as he did at Monaco – in the first half of his debut to earn the Blues a share of the spoils at Stamford Bridge, in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
A stellar performance away at Champions Manchester City in February 2024 saw Disasi pick up the Player of the Match award in a 1-1 draw, making the most clearances by a Chelsea player in a league game (16) for eight seasons.
A week later, he walked out at Wembley, picking up another runners-up medal, this time in the League Cup Final, as Virgil van Dijk’s header in extra-time condemned Chelsea to defeat against Liverpool under the arch.
Disasi ended his first season with the Blues with 44 games making him the club’s fourth-highest appearance maker of the campaign.
His three goals in all competitions might have become four at Villa Park in late April, too. A minute after being introduced, Disasi crashed a header home to edge Chelsea 3-2 ahead in the 95th minute, though the goal was chalked off by VAR for a foul in the build-up by Badiashile.
This season, he has turned out 17 times already for Enzo Maresca’s side, scoring twice and captaining the team on several occasions in the FA Cup and UEFA Conference League.
Welcome to Aston Villa, Axel! 🇫🇷