Tag: AS Monaco

Balogun back among the goals with brace as Monaco trounces Metz

It’s badly-needed good news for Balogun, who helped Monaco claim a dominant win

The good news for the U.S. men’s national team just keeps coming.

Folarin Balogun emerged from a tepid run of form to score twice as Monaco thumped Metz 5-2 in Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Balogun came off the bench to score his brace, making him the first American man in a top-five European league to do that since Charlie Davies did so for Sochaux in 2009.

The goals come on the heels of a dominant win over Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League final, and just hours after Tyler Adams came through a 90-minute match unscathed for the first time in just over a year.

For Balogun, the goals will come as a particular relief. The striker entered the match having scored just two times in his last 12 Monaco appearances, and head coach Adi Hütter removed him from penalty-taking duties after multiple high-profile misses from the spot.

That added up to a start on the bench for the 21-year-old, with Wissam Ben Yedder leading the line for the principality-based club as a lone forward. However, Hütter turned to the USMNT striker in the 65th minute, sending him on for Eliesse Ben Seghir.

With the scoreline 3-0 at the time, Balogun could have just gone through the motions, but his effort quite literally made Monaco’s fourth goal.

A spell of pressure put Metz into a bad spot, with goalkeeper Alexandre Oukidja receiving a pass as Monaco pushed numbers forward in the 76th minute.

Balogun’s hard running did the rest, allowing him to block Oukidja’s ill-advised attempt to chop the ball back from where it came, with the ball caroming off the USMNT man and over the line.

Perhaps stung through the embarrassing nature of that goal, Metz replied with two goals in short order. However, before Monaco had to truly sweat, Balogun struck again, sweeping home after Thilo Kehrer’s flick-on caught Metz out on a corner kick.

The double takes Balogun up to eight goals in 25 total appearances this season for Monaco, to go along with five assists.

Watch Balogun’s brace for Monaco

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Source: Monaco and Benfica leading race for USMNT prospect Josh Wynder

The 17-year-old appears set for a move sooner rather than later

Josh Wynder could be on the move soon, as the race for one of the top prospects in the United States heats up.

Benfica, Monaco and Red Bull Salzburg have made offers for the 17-year-old Louisville City FC central defender, a source close to the situation tells Pro Soccer Wire.

According to the source, Benfica and Monaco are leading the chase to capture the teenager on a permanent move. It is believed it will take a fee of roughly $1.5 million to land Wynder, which would be a record for a USL club.

Wynder started 21 games in the USL Championship in 2022, an impressive feat for a player who only turned 17 midway through the season. The U.S. Under-19 defender’s exploits last year earned him a nomination for U.S. Soccer Young Male Player of the Year.

He is positionally very solid and passes well between the lines. As he showed this week in preseason, he can also strike a ball from distance pretty well.

Wynder signed a new contract with Louisville City earlier this month and though the deal is through 2025, there were plenty of indications he would not be staying for nearly that long.

“For me to make whatever my next step is, I think it will shine a light on Louisville and make people see the USL Championship is a great league and this is a great club,” Wynder said in a release.

Were Salzburg to win out for the player, the source indicated that Wynder could be loaned out to sister club New York Red Bulls for the 2023 season. That would be an intriguing move for the MLS club, who certainly need center back depth.

It appears that a decision by Wynder, who turns 18 years old in May, could be coming as early as next week.

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Tchouameni joins Real Madrid in €100m transfer from Monaco

Real Madrid splashed the cash to bolster their midfield

Aurélien Tchouameni has completed a massive transfer to Real Madrid, with the France midfielder moving from AS Monaco in what Goal reports is—between the transfer fee and potential bonuses—a €100m deal.

Tchouameni has been a fixture in deep-lying midfield for Monaco over the past two seasons, helping them to two straight 3rd place finishes in Ligue 1 as well as this past year’s Europa League knockout stages.

With France, he took over a first-choice role in the late stages of World Cup qualifying last year, including playing the full 90 in the 2021 UEFA Nations League final. Barring injury, he seems like a lock for Didier Deschamps’ World Cup roster.

Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool were both at times linked with a move for Tchouameni, but Real Madrid emerged recently as the most likely landing spot. Tchouameni joins Antonio Rüdiger on the list of incoming summer transfers for los Blancos.

While the Real Madrid midfield is as packed with top-tier stars as ever, the European champions are very reliant on the health of Casemiro, the only truly natural No. 6 in the squad. Tchouameni, at just 22, will likely be a big factor in how Carlo Ancelotti plans for the next few seasons as an aging core group is slowly phased out of the starting eleven.

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Mike James back to Brooklyn?

Mike James, the 6’1” combo guard who gave the Nets some solid minutes at the end of the 2020-21 season then returned to Europe, wants back in the NBA and back in Brooklyn. An NBA insider tells NetsDaily that James, who played for A.C. Monaco in the French Serie A league and Euroleague this season, is hoping that he and Brooklyn can come to an agreement that put him back in the black-and-white for 2022-23. The Nets hold his NBA rights, permitting them to sign him to a vets minimum deal — or something larger outside the salary cap.

James played 13 games with one start in …

James played 13 games with one start in 2020-21, averaging 7.7 points and 4.2 assists in 18 minutes per game. He played in nine post-season games as well, but only sparingly. He joined the team in April 2021 after he left CSKA Moscow following a dispute with his then coach, Dimitris Itoudis, that got him suspended, then released. The Nets did not re-sign him and he returned to Europe, signing with Monaco. More importantly for his future prospects in Brooklyn, he and Kevin Durant remain close friends. Following the Nets loss to the Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs, KD traveled first to Monaco, then to Athens to watch James play in Euroleague games, sticking around to party with James in Greece…

Christos Tsaltas: Some boos for Kevin …