Eliesse Ben Seghir, Maghnes Akliouche maintain Monaco’s tradition of crafting talent

PARIS – Monaco go into their Champions League encounter with Arsenal on Dec 11 having enjoyed a fine start to the season at home and in Europe, led by the latest exciting talent to come through the club’s academy, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Maghnes Akliouche.

The principality side have in the past brought through the likes of Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe, two brilliant attacking players who went on to win World Cups with France.

There are similarities between those two stars and Ben Seghir and Akliouche, both wingers in Adi Hutter’s team who sit third in Ligue 1, five points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

In the Champions League they are eighth before a round of fixtures on Dec 10, on course to progress directly to the last 16 ahead of their testing trip to London.

Monaco kicked off their European campaign with a noteworthy 2-1 success at home to Barcelona, a game in which Akliouche netted their opening goal, one of four he has scored this season.

Ben Seghir, with five, is the team’s top scorer.

“It makes you dream and tells you that the club do a good job,” Ben Seghir told uefa.com when asked about coming through at Monaco and following in the footsteps of Henry and Mbappe.

“If the club managed to produce those players, you have to believe in their project and give everything to succeed.”

Ben Seghir is just 19 but it is almost two years since he made his Ligue 1 debut with a bang, scoring a brace against Auxerre.

He plays either wide on the left or behind the central striker, while the 22-year-old Akliouche plays on the right flank.

Monaco will struggle to keep hold of them beyond this season if they maintain their current form.

Ben Seghir, who has chosen to represent Morocco at full international level, is something of an old-school talent.

“I grew up with idols like Neymar, who gives pleasure to spectators, and so I try to do the same,” he said. “He is a player who dribbles, who scores goals, sets up goals and helps his teammates.”

Akliouche is a native of the Paris suburbs and has Algerian heritage, but is believed to be on the brink of breaking into the full French national team.

“For me he is an international-class player,” said Monaco coach Hutter recently of Akliouche, who featured for Henry’s France side at the Paris Olympics, scoring in the final as Les Bleus lost to Spain.

The duo can dream, but the immediate focus is the clash with Henry’s old side Arsenal, who are level on points with Monaco in the Champions League table as the fight to qualify for the knockout phase intensifies.

Mikel Arteta’s Gunners are hoping to have defenders Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko ready for the match.

“I hope (they are fit enough to play against Monaco), but it’s more a question for the doctors and physios to understand where we are,” said the manager. AFP