Monaco's training ground, carved into a hillside above the principality, overlooks the Côte d'Azur. It is the sort of glamorous setting expected for a football team in one of the world's richest corners. Fifteen nationalities file out of the changing rooms and on to the pitch to be coached by an Austrian, driving home the club's eclectic nature.
They are the senior partner in a multi-club operation that involves one other team: Cercle Brugge, who were bought in 2017. Whereas others stockpile clubs, two is the height of the ambition here, the thinking being that it provides agility but ensures focus. Clubs live and die by recruitment and investing in another team allows more access to talent and increased scope to develop it.
Today Monaco travel to Arsenal in the Champions League and tomorrow Cercle are in Ljubljana to face Olimpija in the Conference League. The project appears to be working. Multinational acquisitions have helped Monaco and their coach, Adi Hütter, create a physical and intense team with flair in the attacking third. Training takes place in numerous languages: the goalkeepers are spoken to in English, while Portuguese, French and German are thrown into the mix by the rest of the squad.
This story is from the December 11, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the December 11, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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