2017, Falcao, the Centenary… Interview with Leonardo Jardim

Present on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of AS Monaco, the former technician of the Rouge et Blanc, French champion in 2017, took the time to talk about his best memories in the Principality.

He is the architect of the golden generation of the 8th French championship title and the epic 2016-2017 Champions League. Present on the bench of AS Monaco for five years, Leonardo Jardim contributed to the return to the forefront of the Principality club. It was therefore with pleasure that the former coach of the Rouge et Blanc agreed to speak, on the sidelines of the Centenary celebrations. Interview ????️

Hello Leonardo. How do you feel when you come back here?

I am very happy to come back here to the training center. I still live here in Monaco, so I have the opportunity to come back regularly. It is important in any case to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Club, it allows us to see the people with whom we had the opportunity to work. It is also an opportunity to share moments of history and remember good memories.

You are part of this history, notably thanks to this incredible 2016-2017 season. What do you remember from this exercise?

Before talking about this season, I think it is important to remember that I am among the coaches who have the most career matches with AS Monaco, and that is a source of great pride! Then obviously the results are very important, because I spent five fantastic years here, always playing on the podium and in European matches.

And obviously I would say that 2017 is a bit of the icing on the cake, with the French championship title up for grabs and a Champions League semi-final. So in hindsight it was a very good season, even if the others were also good, with a quarter-final of C1 in 2015 and a second place in Ligue 1 in 2018. Those also remain good memories.

This epic of 2017 started from the 2015 generation ultimately…

It's obvious! The champion title arrives at the end of a three-year process, with the recruitment of many young players in 2014 in particular, with Fabinho, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Thomas Lemar, Bernardo Silva, Kylian Mbappé via training.

The latter were supervised by experienced players who arrived before me, like Radamel Falcao or João Moutinho. Then we took a few additional players like Kamil Glik, Benjamin Mendy and Djibril Sidibé, without forgetting the old ones: Danijel Subasič, Andrea Raggi, Nabil Dirar and Valère Germain. It’s a team that took us three years to form.

Can we say that you have created a family?

It's true that during these four or five years, we have always kept this state of mind as a close-knit team, a sort of family, which has always been competitive, with a lot of qualities. There were not just eleven players, but a very complete group.

This is why we have achieved feats at international level, such as the victory at Tottenham in front of 80,000 people at Wembley, the elimination of Manchester City, Dortmund, Arsenal two years earlier, etc.

At what point do you say to yourself that this team is going to become champions?

From the start of the season, we felt that we had the best team in recent years! We knew that Paris was a big opponent, but we managed to win at home very quickly against them (3-1). I think this success gave the team a boost. We then continued to work, and I think there was a second important moment.

During the Coupe de France semi-final, we played straight away at home against Toulouse while PSG traveled to Nice. I made the decision to rotate the team, and it paid off, since we won our championship match, while Paris, which fielded the same team in both matches, lost in Nice. At that moment, we knew it was over and the title was for us.

Tell us how you decided to make Radamel Falcao your captain at the start of the season?

Radamel is a player that I knew very well, given that he had played in Portugal, at FC Porto. The first two years we didn't manage to keep him after his serious injury, because he had ambitions to play in England. It wasn't going well for him, either at Manchester United or Chelsea, as he was often injured.

He wasn't well, and I had a conversation with him. I told him to stay in Monaco, that we were going to build a great team to try to win the championship, and that he was going to be my pillar, the captain of my team! I also told him that I was also going to help him get back on top physically, and as a result he had a magnificent season for us.

Did one match stand out to you more than the others?

Of course, I think that the victory in the championship remains the greatest memory, with the validation of the title thanks to the success against Saint-Etienne. Then I must say that the simple fact of having coached AS Monaco remains a source of pride, especially having launched so many young people. I don't forget Layvin Kurzawa, Yannick Carrasco, Anthony Martial, Geoffrey Kondogbia, who were not champions, but who contributed to this journey. That's why I have so many memories in my head.

How does it feel to celebrate 100 years of the Club?

I am lucky to have coached historic teams in my career, such as Sporting Portugal, Olympiakos in Greece, AS Monaco in France and Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. It is important for me to have worked for a club steeped in history, with many fans, and it is therefore an even more important moment for the Club to celebrate its Centenary.

A final word for AS Monaco supporters?

People often criticize them, but they're the club I've taken the most away fans with! They were always there to encourage us, motivate us, support the team. They are very important to the team, and I thank them for that.