It is difficult to find in Europe, or in the world, a place as peculiar as Monaco. A city that does not belong to France, where French or Ligurian are spoken, which has a prince attached to a republic and which, moreover, is a tax haven. Its slender and clean streets, the luxuries, the prices, the houses and everything that surrounds this little corner of 36,000 inhabitants (almost the same as in San Marino) is an attraction for millionaires, celebrities and even soccer players.
Attached to Beausoleil and Cap d’Ail, which translates as “Cape of Garlic”, Monaco is a city where only the rich can cohabit. More than a third of its inhabitants are considered millionaires, the square meter is one of the highest in Europe and the presence of great fortunes gather, year after year, in the Formula 1 circuit, a historical heritage of motorsports in which run through the same city. Football, however, also plays an important role in a Ligue 1 that has declined in recent years.
The Monegasque tax regime, unprecedented in France, is an incentive for foreign players, who benefit from a system in which they hardly have tax charges. To this we must add that the club, AS Monaco, is the one with the fewest inhabitants within the city, but the one that gathers the most fans outside the Louis II, a beautiful, picturesque stadium, at the height of the artistic beauty of the which is the Principality, but a field that on cold days barely accumulates a third of the entry.
Monaco is a familiar, peculiar, historic French football club. Arsene Wenger passed through here, who revolutionized the world of football with a playing style of touch, attacking, empowering young talents and with an intensity that led the “Rouge et Blanc” to be one of the best teams in Europe. In fact, the former Arsenal coach, as he well comments in his autobiography, was the discoverer of George Weah, whom he signed as a child before he became the only African Ballon d’Or in history. In it, Wenger points out that he was invited by the Liberian to the ceremony and gave him a replica of the prestigious award in recognition of his unconditional work to train young people.
Ligue 1, in its slogan, defines itself as the “Ligue des Talents”. And it is not coincidence. It is the championship that has exported the most players from the world in the last five years, it has the best training centers in Europe and, in addition, each club is working hard to modernize the facilities, as Monaco did recently. The first great training center, the José Arribas, a Basque who fled the tragic Spanish civil war and who made history in France as a coach, was the one in Nantes, which was built on the outskirts of the city, very close to the town of Saint -Étienne (not to be confused with the historic Rhône club), of which Milan, with Milanello, practically copied the idea.
An excellent training center
In 2020, during the pandemic, AS Monaco set out to take a step forward in its growth as a club and brand. The Monegasque team inaugurated the new training center, located 200 meters from the Louis II stadium. This modern complex was one more incentive for young people, since before it was more difficult to make the round trips from the Côte d’Azur regions and many stayed on the road because they did not have enough time. On the day of the inauguration was Prince Albert, who is a regular in the box of Louis II.
As Paul Mitchell, Monaco’s sports director, explained to AS in an interview, the construction of La Diagonale represents “a bridge for young players” with respect to La Turbie, the performance center, the modern training center located in the village of La Turbie and for which a good car or a last generation bicycle is needed to ascend its endless and steep slopes.
For Mitchell, “Having La Diagonale is an incentive for young people. When they look up, they see La Turbie (the new training centre), and they know that to play for the first team, they have to work hard and reach the top.” The Englishman, who signed for Monaco after an excellent job in the Red Bull teams (RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig), has placed its complete trust in the youth academy, aware that internal investment is more important than external investment.
Monaco has trained great players throughout its history. From Lilian Thuram in defense, going through the talented Petit in the middle and ending with offensive emblems of French football such as David Trezeguet, Thierry Henry or the last case of Kylian Mbappé, although his beginnings were in Bondy. La Diagonale, which is located a few meters from Louis II, the mythical stadium where the European Super Cup was held in August until very recently, brought a new dimension to the club.
Enlarge
Within these luxurious facilities, in which disturbances do not exist and tranquility reigns in its surroundings, you can see an impeccable dining room, rooms for the players to rest, a school to train soccer players in society that cannot reach the top and different entertainment rooms in which the members of the Monegasque quarry can develop other skills. Before, despite already being an exquisite training center, modernity was conspicuous by its absence in terms of logistics.
Monaco is currently the youngest team in Ligue 1. In recent years, in addition to the well-known case of Mbappé, the club has been characterized by promoting the youth system. Badiashile, who made his debut at the age of 16 and played more than 150 games with the rojiblancos, was sold to Chelsea in the winter market for 40 million euros, Ben Seghir, the jewel in the crown who made his debut with a double at just 17 years old, Akliouche and Matazo are already habitual for Clement and Matsima He is another player who, although he was loaned to Lorient, is part of the first team’s short-term plans.
Monaco’s goal, in the words of Pascal De Maesschalck, director of youth development, is “training players to reach the highest level in Europe.” The manager, who attends us in La Turbie, after a path reminiscent of the infernal Alpe D’Huez of the Tour de France, assures that the priority right now is to train players rather than aspire to great things with respect to the first team. “We have finished third in Ligue 1 for the last two seasons. That is success too. But we focus on training players, launching them into the first team and developing them, both as players and in society”.
Enlarge
Monaco, in turn, He decided not to sign in the last winter market. A surprising decision, especially for the 40 million received from the sale of Badiashile, but one that is in line with the policy set by De Maesschalck. Paul Mitchell, his sports director, explains it very well in AS. “There are two types of investments and recruitment. The external, which is where you spend, and the internal, which is development. So we focus on investing in our players so that they develop. For me, the most correct thing would be to sign a lot of players. But it’s not the right thing to do, because it would slow down the growth of our talents. The cornerstone of our project is the academy”, acknowledged the Englishman.
The club is proud of its training center. It is not for less. In the corridors of La Diagonale, you can see phrases from former players, including one from Mbappé, who appeals to “effort” to reach the highest level. For De Maesschalck, the footballers he signs are asked for 100% success in school, physical, mental and technical aptitudes, not just football. La Turbie and La Diagonale mean work, effort, hours of sleep lost, hours without friends, without family, without luxuries, to one day climb to the top and settle in the first team.
Paul Mitchell, in turn, acknowledges that football tends more and more to “deprive” talent, to turn players into robots, but adds that Monaco’s incentive is to give the most talented players from the academy “sufficient tools ” so that they develop to the highest level. Let football flow, in short, so as not to confine them in a defined system that prevents them from developing their skills once their jump to the Monaco first team has been consummated.
Eliminated the subsidiary to compete for Europe with young people
In June 2022, AS Monaco announced an unprecedented decision in French football. He Monegasque side eliminated their team from National 2 (French fourth division) and National 3 (fifth division) to form an ‘elite group’ of young players who would compete in various competitions, including some outside of France. The unexpected measure was taken in line with the creation of the new training centeralleging that it would favor the development of the greatest talents of the prestigious youth academy of the club.
Without going further, Monaco travels to Munich this weekend to play a match in the Premier League International Cup, an international tournament for under-23s in which many European teams face each other. PSG decided several years ago to eliminate its subsidiary team so that the youngsters could play their matches in National 2 and the direct jump to the first team will be promoted. Luis Campos, who went through Monaco, also created an elite group at PSG, but only to promote training sessions for youth players with the first team.
Enlarge
Pascal De Maesschalck, director of youth development, acknowledged in Diario AS that the club carried out an exhaustive study before undertaking such a decision and one of the conclusions was that “the age of French teams is decreasing more and more, so in National 2 and National 3 there are fewer and fewer young players”. This does not favor the progression of the homegrown players, since development slows down radically.
Another advantage of not having to play at a professional level is that the players have fun on the field, since they don’t have the pressure of the results and that enhances their technical skills. “The objective is clear. Train our best players. For this we look for solutions like this. We want to be the best training center in France”, insists Pascal De Maesschalck, who also explains very well that they have made three-day trips to play outside of France, which favors the coexistence of the players, getting used to traveling and, above all, preparing for what will come at a professional level.
Does it benefit Monaco to have such a young team and to focus solely on training or do you need a balance? Mitchell answers. “Age is a number. There are players who, at 23, have more experience and have played more games than another 29. Look at Badiashile. He has gained experience because he debuted at 16 years old. He has played many matches. Does age make you inexperienced? Absolutely. Last year we stayed out of the Champions League, like this year. Did that make you a better player and have a better mentality? Of course. It’s not just age that matters.”
The key, finally, to the success of the Monaco academy is that the club tries to have six players from the training center training regularly with the first team. The paradigmatic case is Ben Seghir, with the permission of Mbappé, a 17-year-old boy who made his debut against Auxerre, scored two beautifully crafted goals and played as if he knew his teammates by heart. The Monegasque entity shows off its new training center, dreams of entering a new dimension and becoming the best training team in France and one of the best in European football. Time will tell if the investment, impressive, has not been in vain.
