Know your next superclub: A.S. Monaco

In December 2011 a Russian Billionaire named Dmitry Rybolovlev – owner of potash fertilizer company Urakali bought 66 percent stakes in a French, Ligue 2 club.

Fast forward 2 years and the club is crowned the 2013 Ligue 2 champions and in turn gained automatic promotion to Ligue 1.

The story doesn’t end here, weeks after their promotion the club backed by Rybolovlev has already shelled out a combined $173 Million on Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho, James Rodriguez and Ricardo Carvalho. What’s more, there are reports that the club is planning to make an audacious 100 million-euro bid for Cristiano Ronaldo.

That club is – AS Monaco, yes don’t stress your brain too much remembering them, because you might haven’t heard much of them before but you are surely going to.

Now, before you go out lashing to your friends about how another rich Russian dude is destroying the footballing culture with his giant pockets or how real football clubs are those who thrive on their youth systems, there are a few things you need to know about the club.

History

Although Les Rouge et Blanc (English: The Red and White) were bought by Dmitry when they were stumbling in Ligue 2, they are one of the most successful clubs in French soccer history with 7 league titles and 5 Coupes de France.

This year, after they were crowned as Ligue 2 champions this year, A.S. Monaco have now won all major domestic trophies in French League Soccer. Surprisingly, they are also the only French club to make the Championship League Finals apparence (2004) this decade.

The most astonishing fact about the club you need to know is that after finishing second in Ligue 1 in 2003, they were demoted to Ligue 2 by the French Professional League for amassing a €50 million ($68 million) debt. However, after appeals this was reduced to a ban on purchasing players. Still under all the financial stress, the club manged to finish third the following year and somehow made it to the UEFA Champions League Final beating the likes of Chelsea & Real Madrid along their way.

Their relegation was also just a matter of bad luck as the bottom half of the table (specifically teams 10th to 18th) were just separated by 5 points, although it also proved a blessing in disguise as Dmitry bought the club 7 months after their relegation.Now that you know something about the great footballing history of Les Rouge et Blanc, lets take a look at notable former players.

Notable Former Players

The most honorable player to ever play in the Youth Squad of Monaco is Thierry Henry. The Frenchman, who is touted as one of the greatest strikers to ever step on the footballing field, started playing for Monaco Youth Soccer team at the age of 15, he continued to play for the French giants till the age of 17. After that, he was promoted to the senior squad, where he spent 6 years, playing 105 games and scoring 20 goals before eventually being transferred to the Old Lady in Italy.

Eric Abidal, who won a combined 21 titles with Lyon & Barcelona, started his club career with Monaco B squad, a year later he was promoted to the A.S. Monaco, where he played two solid years before being traded to Lille.

Although Patrice Evra started his club career with Marsala, Monza & Nice (4 years combined), it was his 4 years stint (02-06) at Monaco where he gained invaluable experience of playing at the highest level and garnered major interests from bigger club, he was eventually picked up by Manchester United for a measly £5.5 million.

Lilian Thuram, the most capped player in the history of the France national football team and one of the twenty most internationally capped players of all time, started his soccer career at Les Rouge et Blanc, playing for 7 years and 155 games where he developed into one of the best defenders of all time.

Dada Prso, one of the greatest Croatian Strikers also started his soccer journey after being picked up by Monaco as a 22-year-old.

David Trezeguet, probably the greatest striker with dual citizenship (France & Argentina), spent two seasons with Monaco B before getting promoted and winning the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year in 1998. He then scored 60 goals in 113 appearances (4 years) for the Red & Whites before being traded to Juventus and winning several honors.

So I think at this at this point I’ve fairly proved that Monaco isn’t just another random club that was bought by a Russian Billionaire and indeed it has a great history.

Now let’s move to the part you care about the most right now, their FUTURE!

Future

More Signings

Although as I stated above that the Reds & Whites have already spent a enormous $173 million in summer spending spree, Monaco still intends to lure in some more players.

Yohan Cabaye, Gareth Bale, Eliaquim Mangala, Carlos Tevez, Isco, Dani Alves, Jeremy Menez, Victor Valdes, Nicolas N’Koulou & Bacary Sagna are few of the many potential targets that Monaco intend to sign in their bid to make a beautiful team as stated by sporting director Vadim Vasilyev: “We want to build a beautiful team who play beautiful football,”

Coaching

Although A.S Monaco entertained Hall of Famer coaches like Arsene Wenger (87-94) & Didier Deschamps (01-05), they went under major coaching instability as they changed 8 coaches in the span of 7 years after the departure of Deschamps.

It seems like they have now reached some stability with current coach Claudio Ranieri who has knack for getting clubs promoted.

Early in his coaching career, he led Cagliari to consecutive promotions in the late 80?s and after that, led Fiorentina, his 5th club, to promotion in 1994. His next two coaching spells at Valencia & Atletico Madrid were pretty ordinary. His big break came when he was appointed the coach of Chelsea in 2000. He led the Blues to 2002 FA Cup Final and after then consecutive Champions League appearances. He then coached Valencia, Parma, Jeventus, Roma (great success) & Inter before being signed by Dimitry to a 2-year contract.

Ranieri is not clearly a “winner” but he has all tools to take the club to the next level.

Ligue 1 Predictions

Last year, Ligue 1 showed major disparity with Paris Saint Germain, winning the title easily by 12 points over Marseille. So with some big signings, a decent coach and not so much chemistry, PSG won the title fairly easily.

That doesn’t mean that Monaco will have the same success as PSG (although they have already spent way more than them), it certainly points that Monaco will gain Champions League qualification, first year back into the top flight.

Ending Note

Whether the Les Monegasques will meet their expectations is still a question mark, because as they say – in football you never know.

Still two things are for sure, the world will start taking Les Monegasques seriously and PSG have finally found a rival of their stature.

Don’t be surprised if you find Monaco’s name in every major transfer rumor for the next five years, after all they got the Russian factor.