ANOTHER football season is in the books, and the clubs now are looking to shore up their finances or boost their main squads on the transfer market. The biggest news here is the blockbuster transfer of Aurélien Tchouaméni from AS Monaco to Real Madrid FC for a sizeable sum of €100 million, including bonuses. The 22-year-old midfielder joined the Monégasque side from Bordeaux in January 2020 for just €18 million. Not only is the transfer of the Frenchman an early candidate for the record fee of this campaign, it also makes Monaco the first club in history to sell two players for €100 million or more. The first was no other than Kylian Mbappé, who left for PSG in 2017 following the Ligue 1-winning performance with the Monégasques for then-record €180 million. To this day, the deal is only second to PSG’s signing of Neymar for €222 million. Tchouaméni’s transfer now rounds up the top 10 biggest football deals of all time.
Over the past decade, Monaco showed the unique ability to align consistent success in Ligue 1 with making headlines in the transfer market. The princely club has a clear strategy of discovering exceptional youth talent for the subsequent development and sale. Monaco isn’t the only club to do so, Ajax, Porto and Benfica follow virtually the same blueprint. But no one has been able to develop and market players of Mbappé’s caliber while consistently reaching the podium of a top European league like the Monégasques.
