Know your next superclub: A.S. Monaco

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.