The title of 2017, Falcao, the Centenary… Exclusive interview with Leonardo Jardim

Present on the bench of AS Monaco for five years, Leonardo Jardim contributed to the return to the forefront of the club of the Principality. It is therefore with pleasure that we spoke exclusively with the former coach of the Rouge et Blanc, on the sidelines of the celebrations of the Club’s Centenary. 🎙️

Hello Leonardo. How do you feel about coming 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 100 years of the Club, it allows you to see again the people with whom you had the opportunity to work. It is also an opportunity to share moments of history and remember good memories.

You are part of this story, especially thanks to this incredible 2016-2017 season. What do you remember from this campaign?

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

And of course I would say that 2017 was a bit like the cherry on the cake, with a league title and reaching the semifinals of the Champions League. So in hindsight it was a very good season, even if the others were also good, with a quarterfinal in the Champions League in 2015 and second place in Ligue 1 in 2018. Those are also good memories.

This epic 2017 season started with the 2015 generation, after all…

It’s obvious! The title comes 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 and of course Kylian Mbappé via the academy.

The latter were supervised by experienced players who arrived before me, like Radamel Falcao or João Moutinho. Then we took on a few additional players like Kamil Glik, Benjamin Mendy and Djibril Sidibé, without forgetting veterans: 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 created a family?

It is true that during these four or five years, we have always kept this spirit of a close-knit team, a kind of family, which has always been competitive, with a lot of qualities. There were not only eleven players, but a very complete squad.

That’s why we achieved great things at international level, like beating Tottenham in front of 80,000 people at Wembley, beating Manchester City, Dortmund, Arsenal two years earlier, etc.

At what point do you think 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 tough 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.

In the semi-final of the Coupe de France, we played Toulouse at home while PSG travelled to Nice. I made the decision to rotate the team, and it paid off, since we won our league match, while Paris, which had the same team in both matches, lost to Nice. At that point, we knew it was over and that the title was ours.

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

Radamel is a player I knew very well, since he had played in Portugal, at FC Porto. The first two years, we were unable to keep him after his serious injury, because he had the ambition to play in England. Things were not going well for him, whether at Manchester United or Chelsea, because he was often injured.

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

Was there a match that left a bigger impression on you than the others?

Of course, I think that winning the title remains the greatest memory, along with confirming the title thanks to the victory against Saint-Etienne. Then I must say that the simple fact of having coached AS Monaco remains a source of pride, especially since I launched so many young players. I won’t forget players like Layvin Kurzawa, Yannick Carrasco, Anthony Martial, Geoffrey Kondogbia, who weren’t champions, but who contributed to this journey. That’s what makes me have so many memories in my head.

How does it feel to celebrate the Club’s 100th anniversary?

I am fortunate 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 full of history, with a lot of fans, and it is therefore an even more important moment for the Club to celebrate its Centenary.

A final word for the AS Monaco supporters?

People often criticize them, but it’s the club with which I’ve taken the most supporters on the road! They were always there to encourage us, motivate us, support the team. They are very important for the team, and I thank them for that.