AS Monaco, the "midwife" with a good hand
(Baonghean.vn) - In the past two years, no club in Europe has made as much profit from buying and selling players as AS Monaco. Last year, the Louis II team pocketed 394 million euros thanks to "blood selling". And this season, before the transfer market closed, they managed to add 330 million euros to their account.
In the summer of 2017, AS Monaco players, Ligue 1 champions, suddenly became valuable, causing the team at Louis II Stadium tois one of the busiest player trading addresses in Europe.
The brightest stars who helped them win Ligue 1 last season such as Bernardo Silva, Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Mendy... are constantly being courted by European football giants, with lucrative contracts and sky-high salaries.
Player "transit station"
One after another, famous names such as Kylian Mbappe (180 million euros), Thomas Lemar (70 million euros), Benjamin Mendy (57.5 million euros), Bernardo Silva (50 million euros), Fabinho (45 million euros) or Tiemoue Bakayoko (40 million euros) all left the club to move to new lands. Meanwhile, AS Monaco is known as a "midwife", a transit address for stars to join big teams.
According to CIES, a company that monitors the football market, Monaco has earned a total of 394 million euros from selling players. In the opposite direction, to recruit Youri Tielemans, Balde Keita, Steven Jovetic, Terence Kongolo, Adama Diakhaby, Rachid Ghezzal, and Soualiho Meite... they only had to spend 105 million euros.
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| Louis II Stadium is considered a "transit station" for players in Europe. Photo: CNN |
Thus, the Ligue 1 champions made a total profit of 289 million euros. On the European level, no team made as much profit as Monaco in the 2017 summer transfer window.
In fact, the club's player buying and selling was far more effective than the two teams behind it. Borussia Dortmund only made a total profit of 110 million euros, of which they earned 199 million euros from the sales of Ousmane Dembele, Emre Mor and Matthias Ginter.
The German Cup champions spent a total of 89 million pounds to bring in players like Moahmoud Dahoud, Jeremy Toljan... Next, Lyon is the third team with a profit of 72 million pounds. This club earned 129 million from selling players like Corentin Tolisso, Alexandre Lacazette. And had to spend 59 million euros to bring in replacements.
This summer, the player transfer market in the five biggest European leagues still reached 4.2 billion euros, becoming the second consecutive year to surpass the 4 billion euro mark. At the top of that list is none other than AS Monaco, whose players are still enthusiastically sought after by European clubs.
This summer, they earned 330 million euros thanks to the sales of Fabinho (45.8 million euros) to Liverpool, Terence Kongolo (19.9 million euros), Adama Diakhaby to Huddersfield. In addition, Ghezzal, Joao Moutinho and Soualiho Meite also left.
Surprisingly, Monaco's player sales in the past two years far exceeded those of Barca and Real (only 313 million euros and 274 million euros) even though the sales list of these two La Liga giants includes two of the world's top stars, Neymar and Ronaldo.
Buy low, sell high
Just a few years ago, AS Monaco showed that they were a French team with great ambitions. The club's owners dared to spend a lot of money to buy famous striker Radamel Falcao.
In fact, AS Monaco won Ligue 1 two seasons ago and even reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. However, the spending spree on star players has long since faded into the past, replaced by a player buying and selling policy that focuses more on revenue from transfer activities.
Both Vadim Vasilyev, Monaco vice-president and man in charge of transfers, and president Dimitri Rybolovlev share the same philosophy of football business.
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| Selling too many key players has left AS Monaco in 13th place in the Ligue 1 rankings. Photo: CNN |
Their new football business model: build a network of scouts to hunt down young, unproven talents and bring them to the Louis II Stadium. Train and play alongside a golden generation of talented players to help them become famous, then sell them for the price of precious gems and diamonds.
In the summer of 2018, AS Monaco recruited talented Russian midfielder Aleksandr Golovin for 30 million euros. This player played very well for the Russian team at the 2018 World Cup and was watched by many clubs, but this team was quicker.
Coach Leonardo Jardim still has "rough gems" Samuel Grandsir, Willem Geubbels or Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel waiting for his skillful teacher to hone them.
Recently, Monaco successfully recruited Belgian winger Nacer Chadli from Championship club, West Bromwich Albion for 10 million pounds with a 3-year contract.
Chadli is 29 years old this year, a talented winger. At the 2018 World Cup, he scored 1 goal in 6 appearances, contributing to the 3rd place of the Belgian team. After West Brom was relegated, Chadli clearly expressed his desire to leave, and Monaco is the ideal destination for him at the moment.
If next summer, the names Aleksandr Golovin and Chadli become famous in the transfer market, it will not be too surprising. Vadim Vasilyev, vice president of Monaco and the scouting department of AS Monaco are doing a great job of hunting for "hidden stars" in small teams. Coach Leonardo Jardim is famous for creating a brand for these potential players.
Pride wounded
The continuous selling of key players of the team has affected AS Monaco's performance. In Ligue 1, after 4 rounds, AS Monaco has lost 2, drawn 1 and only won 1 match, earning 4 points and temporarily ranked 13th, 8 points behind PSG.
It is clear that Monaco fans have every right to complain about their owners.Dimitri Rybolovlev focused too much on profits and forgot about the team's achievements.
Last year, although they finished 2nd in Ligue 1, they were 13 points behind PSG, which hurt the pride of the people of Monaco.
