Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco.
History[]
AS Monaco FC was founded on August 1, 1920 as a unification of numerous local clubs based in France and the principality. Then, the multiple sports club of the Association Sportive de Monaco was founded on August 23, 1924. AS Monaco FC was then absorbed by the latter and became the football section of the enlarged Monegasque sporting club.[1]
The club's proudest moment was 2004, when they reached the Champions League final for the first and only time, losing 3-0 to Jose Mourinho's Porto. However, by 2011, the club was deep in crisis, and dropped into the second division. It took time to get the club back on its feet, but by 2016-17 it was celebrating its first league championship for 17 years, one of just two times since 2013 that PSG's dominance has been interrupted.[2]
Monaco play at the 16,360 capacity Stade Louis II, opened in 1981 on the site of another ground of the same name, where Barça once played in a friendly against Portuguesa Rio of Brazil in honour of the wedding of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly. Barça presented the princess with a black mantilla that her daughter, Princess Carolina, wore to her mother’s funeral following her tragic death in 1982. With its iconic arches at one end of the ground, it may be small but offers state-of-the-art facilities, and for many years it was the regular venue for the European Super Cup. Barça played in three of those, losing 3-0 to Sevilla in 2006, but beating Shakthar Donetsk and Porto in 2009 and 2011.[3]