Lacroix is now officially a Chelsea player, with the 26-year-old French international completing his summer move from fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace to join the Blues. After he was unveiled as the newest member of the squad at Cobham, we explore some of the facts about our defender you might not know...

• Lacroix was originally a goalkeeper when he started playing football as a child, following in the footsteps of his father. He then moved up front using his pace as a striker, and didn’t take up his now-familiar centre-back role until he was playing at Under-17s level, during his time with French club Sochaux.

• The French international started his career with village teams lower down the pyramid in regional football in Dordogne, where he grew up. He spent time with local team Thenon before moving to Limeyrat Les Croquants, the latter club named after local revolutionary folk hero Jacques Le Croquant.

• Despite being born on the outskirts of Pairs, Lacroix grew up a long way from the big city. His early years were spent in the farming village of Ajat in Dordogne, with a population of just over 300 people, originally staying on the local mayor’s farm.

• That upbringing in the French countryside surrounded by nature and farmers meant Lacroix’s early ambition as a child was not to become a professional footballer or follow his parents into the medical professions, but to follow his love of animals by helping them as a veterinarian.

• Away from football, the defender is a bit of a bookworm and particularly enjoys reading books about another of his off-field interests, economics.

• The France international was honoured when the new multi-purpose sports field in Thenon, where he first started playing organised football, was opened in 2022, being named the Stade Maxence Lacroix.

• During his time with Crystal Palace, Lacroix became the team’s unofficial ‘pastor’, introducing and then leading prayer sessions and bible readings for the squad before matches.

• Fellow French international Josuha Guilavogui had a big influence over Lacroix ending up playing his football in the Premier League. The Wolfsburg stalwart was club captain and encouraged Lacroix to learn English when they played together in Germany. When they both moved to England in 2024 – Guilavogui to Leeds United and Lacroix to Crystal Palace – the older player was an important factor in helping Maxence settle here.

• Lacroix likes to travel well prepared, and it was no exception when he made the trip across the Atlantic with France for this summer’s FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA. The defender revealed his bible was the important possession he packed in his suitcase, but he also took a Rubik’s cube and his own chess set to keep himself busy, at his wife’s insistence.

• The defender had to wait patiently for his chance with the French national team at senior level. Almost exactly a decade after he made his debut for his country at youth level, and seven years since he last appeared for the Under-20s, Lacroix received his first call-up by Didier Deschamps in March 2026. His debut came in a win over Brazil, before he made his first start as they beat Colombia a few days later.