MONACO (AP) — Years before a statue in his honor was erected in the south-east corner of the Emirates Stadium, a young and ambitious Thierry Henry was honing his skills hundreds of miles from London, in a warmer, sunnier place on the French Riviera.

The AS Monaco training academy.

Henry, who went on to become the all-time top scorer for Arsenal, is one of the many French soccer stars who have emerged from the famed training program. Others include Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet, Kylian Mbappé and Henry's Arsenal teammate Emmanuel Petit.

Several graduates from the academy are in the Monaco squad travelling to London to play Arsenal on Wednesday in the Champions League, including Maghnes Akliouche and Eliesse Ben Seghir.

Ben Seghir, 19, is already a Morocco international and Monaco’s top scorer in the French league. Akliouche’s technical brilliance has not gone unnoticed and the 22-year-old is on the radar of big European clubs.

“We are feeding the first team with good players coming from the academy every season,” Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro told The Associated Press during an interview at the club. “It’s a very beneficial setup.”

Marshalling the midfield and capable to play in defense, 21-year-old Soungoutou Magassa is another product of Monaco’s youth program.

Originally from the Paris region, Magassa was scouted when he was 12. A silver medalist with France at the Paris Olympics, he recently scored his first professional goal against Benfica in the Champions League.

“I was not necessarily the strongest at the academy, the one with the brightest future,” Magassa told AP. “But we were very close, helping each other and aiming in the same direction. There was a lot of talent, and its shows today. Many of us have turned pro.”

It’s unclear whether Monaco coach Adi Hütter’s youthful side will emulate the class of 2017, when the Monaco of then-emerging Mbappé defeated Manchester City and dazzled past Borussia Dortmund to reach the semifinals of the Champions League. But there are clear signs that the club’s commitment to youth development is once again paying off.

After five games in the league phase of the Champions League, Monaco is the highest ranked French team, level on points with Arsenal and well positioned to make it to the knockout stage.

“We want to play an aggressive football, very dynamic, and create a lot of chances, which is part of the DNA of Monaco,” Scuro said. “We recruit players for this kind of football.”

Monaco DNA

Monaco celebrated its 100th anniversary last summer, but it was not before the mid-1950’s that it really took off in the minuscule city-state on the French Riviera more famous for its billionaires.

Because it's so small, Monaco has no league of its own. Its only professional soccer club — whose full name is Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club — has always played in the French league system.

For long, the small population and the lack of youngsters playing soccer in the area was a handicap. The creation in 1975 of the academy known as the Diagonale — a reference to the diagonal stripe adorning the team’s jersey designed by Princess Grace — changed the dynamics.

Created by former president Jean-Louis Campora, the youth academy recruited some of the best coaches from the French national soccer institute. Campora quickly convinced parents of young soccer players across France it was the best place for their kids to thrive.

During an era when foreign players were limited to three per team, the academy helped the club playing in the French league establish itself as a powerhouse. Monaco has won eight domestic league titles, five French Cups and made it to the Champions League final in 2004.

Turning hopefuls into pros

With an annual budget of about 10 million euros ($10.6 million), the academy has trained many players who went on to represent their countries as pros. Potential recruits are assessed by some 20 people before enrolment decisions.

“It’s a beautiful spider’s web," said Sébastien Muet, head of the academy.

The academy takes Under-17 players — some as young as 14 — who can stay at the center until they are 21-22. All are boys. While Monaco has a women’s team, it’s a small, separate entity with no link to the men's club.

Some 55 trainees are currently enrolled at the center located just a stone’s throw from Monaco’s Louis II stadium. The students sleep, eat, study and receive medical care in the building.

In addition to matches, they train between 12 and 14 hours per week. They attend secondary school 22 hours per week, supervised by teachers hired by the club.

When the AP visited the center last week, a group of students were hard at work on “The Arctic, an attractive and fragile polar environment."

For Muet, helping the young players find the "right balance" between sports and studies is a priority.

"We want to help them to be capable of thinking and analyzing, to be capable of flourishing in whatever field they choose for their professional life,” he told AP.

The busy schedule does not leave much time for recovery and leisure, beyond playing Playstation. Meanwhile, the director of studies Virginie Barilaro-Gollino tries her best to broaden her students’ horizons.

“We lack time, but we try to organize as many extracurricular activities as possible. Such as visits to the Monte-Carlo Ballets. Or bakery contests,” she said.

A long-term strategy

Promoting homegrown players to the pro team also contributes to healthy finances.

“You don’t need to spend money to go abroad,” Scuro said. “You have the solution in house.”

It has not always been obvious, though.

A decade ago, Monaco was splashing cash to sign some of soccer's biggest stars. The club made headlines for recruiting Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho for a combined fee of 130 million euros.

At the time, Monaco looked determined to fight toe-to-toe with big spenders PSG for domestic supremacy. But facing a UEFA probe for overspending on transfers and wages as part of Financial Fair Play, owner Dmitry Rybolovlev — a Russian billionaire who invested millions of euros to bring Monaco back to the topflight in 2013 — made clear the club would focus on the development of young talents instead.

Rybolovlev also invested 55 million euros to build a modern training complex where the first team and the reserve players train.

The club now generates a huge income from the sale of players it developed either straight from the academy or after recruiting them from elsewhere. Mbappé was sold for 180 million euros to PSG while Aurélien Tchouaméni joined Real Madrid for 80 million euros in 2022.

That year, Monaco was ranked third behind Benfica and Real Madrid in the top 50 of clubs having generated the most income since July 2015 from the transfer of players who graduated from its youth academy, with around 285 million euros.

Looking at the current crop of academy players, that strategy is likely to continue to yield dividends. During the October international break, no fewer than 20 players from the professional squad and the academy were called up by their national teams.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer