AS Monaco 2023/24: Perusing three promising prospects from their productive academy – scout report

AS Monaco is a footballing institution known for unearthing gems and moulding them into world-class talents. With a storied history of league titles and European glory, Monaco has consistently adhered to a philosophy of blending experienced stars with homegrown prospects and talented youngsters.

The Monaco youth system has been the development ground of many iconic French footballers, such as Thierry Henry, Lillian Thuram and Emmanuel Petit. Some famous names to come through the AS Monaco youth system more recently include the likes of Kylian Mbappe, who was imperative in their 2018/19 Ligue 1 title campaign, contributing 15 league goals that season. Midfielder Khéphren Thuram has gone on to make a name for himself with some impressive performances at OGC Nice. In January 2023, defender Benoît Badiashille signed for Premier League side Chelsea. 

Many of these players often leave Stade Louis II for significant sums of money. Although Monacos commitment to cultivating youth talent isnt solely driven by financial pragmatism, the €180m fee brought in through Mbappes move to PSG allowed for significant reinvestment and rebuilding of the squad. 

In this tactical analysis and scout report, we set our sights on three players in the Monaco youth system who will most likely go on to make an impact at Stade Louis II and beyond. We will highlight the critical aspects of each players style and what they could offer Monacos tactics in the future.

Saïmon Bouabré

The first player we are going to look at is 17-year-old Saïmon Bouabré. The youngster is primarily a central midfielder who can play a little higher as an attacking midfielder or out wide on the left wing. 

Bouabré is a player who automatically looks to utilise his speed and attacking attributes whenever possible. Monacos youth teams mostly use a 4-3-3 formation; when deployed as a winger, he likes to play on the left, which enables him to cut inside onto his favoured right foot. When playing as a midfielder, he looks to make runs forward and take up positions between the opposition lines. 

He consistently makes runs to get beyond the opposition defence, allowing the holding midfielder(s) to look for him via a pass over the top of the opposition defence, as we can see above. In this scenario, he is playing on the left and making runs into the middle from the wide area. Making these inverted runs leaves space for the fullback to make overlapping runs down the flank, which stretches the oppositions defence and creates gaps for Bouabré to exploit.

He has