Monaco facing dilemma of whether to sell rising stars
monaco — To sell or not to sell is the question soon facing Monaco.
Monaco have a summer of tough decision-making ahead — even more so if it wins the Champions League. The 2004 runners-up face Juventus in the first leg of the semifinals on Wednesday: the toughest test of a thrilling season that has seen Monaco score 146 goals in all competitions.
Monaco’s young players have made such an impression — particularly striker Kylian Mbappe — that offers will be flooding in when the transfer window reopens. In the Principality famed for its casino, Monaco will have to choose whether or not to cash in its chips this summer and rake in a huge amount.
“We don’t need to sell, our budget is stable,” Monaco’s vice president Vadim Vasilyev recently told football show Telefoot. “For the time being, no player has said he wants to leave. Ahead of the 2018 World Cup, neither Thomas (Lemar), Kylian or perhaps Bernardo Silva wants to leave ... We’ll do everything to keep them.”
It sounds like reassuring news, but any club wishing to sign the 18-year-old Mbappe will need to make a massive offer. The newly-capped France forward’s estimated value is already at 100 million euros ($110 million) and it’s not hard to see why.
At the age of 18 years and four months, he is the youngest to reach 15 league goals in Europe’s top five leagues since former Golden Ball winner Michael Owen for Liverpool in 1998; the youngest to have reached five goals in the Champions League, and the first player to score in each of the first four Champions League knockout rounds he played in.
Mbappe has netted 24 goals this season, including 18 in his last 18 — and he was playing in the reserves until November. His powerful running, skill, sheer pace, and cool finishing make him a mix between Thierry Henry and Brazil great Ronaldo.
In fact, he is so popular in France that even opposing fans from Lyon and Caen applauded him off the field when he played there. —