On October 16, Vice President Oleg Petrov and Sporting Director Paul Mitchell presented AS Monaco’s last signings of what has been a very busy transfer window. Introducing Vito Mannone and Florentino Luis, two very different players with different roles and positions but the common cause of strengthening an already stronger red and white squad.
Vito Mannone was the first to meet the press alongside Mitchell and Petrov. The Italian goalkeeper arrives to the Principality from US Major League Soccer league wherein he completed his last season as the top goalie, with the safest hands in the west. At 32 years-old he holds valuable experience in his position and this should already serve to strengthen Monaco’s current goal keeper, Benjamin Lecomte. “It’s always difficult to recruit a good, experienced goalkeeper and we are happy to have Vito among us and we will build with his experience.” said Mitchell to the press.
Next up was Portuguese youngster Florentino Luis. A dangerous midfielder with great potential, Luis has already played at the highest level in the Champions League and the Europa League with his old team Benfica. At 21 years-old, he is also a Portuguese international player, having been called up to play with all of his country’s youth sides. “We also welcome Florentino to our AS Monaco family. He is proof that we are looking for very competitive profiles for each position, to bring competition into the squad.” said Mitchell, a man with a plan.
Speaking on the transfer window strategy, Vice President Petrov said “It was a very long and very difficult transfer window. We have been very active, with an initial objective of rebalancing the team. We had over 70 in the squad at the start of the transfer window, and we’re down to 40 players today, 30 professional players and 10 youngsters in the Academy. The second objective was to respond to opportunities in the market to stick to our way of playing, to the system of coach Niko Kovac… Kevin Volland, Axel Disasi and Caio Henrique also arrived before these last two recruits. The young players have also given us a lot of satisfaction, many of whom came from the Academy here at AS Monaco. I think the Club has really given itself the means to succeed in achieving its goals for the season.”
The presentation came just two days before AS Monaco welcome Montpellier to their home turf of Stade Louis II for a regular season fixture on Sunday, October 18, with the kick off set for 14:00. Tickets can be bought here, see you there!
Featured image courtesy of AS Monaco FC
