Thursday December 30th 2021
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AS Monaco throws Niko Kovac out
After only one and a half years, Niko Kovac is dismissed from AS Monaco. Despite millions of investments, the former Bayern coach falls short of expectations, his team is 17 points behind industry leader PSG in the table.
The Champions League missed, 17 points behind PSG in the table: The French first division soccer club AS Monaco has sacked coach Nico Kovac after frustrating months. The news agency AFP reports with reference to club-related sources. Despite millions of investments, the former Bayern coach on the Mediterranean fell short of expectations and, as in November 2020 in Munich, was a victim of unsuccessfulness.
The Croatian’s contract ran until 2023, actually, Kovac had big plans. His goal is “to bring Monaco back to the top of Ligue 1. We want to achieve the maximum of what is possible here,” Kovac said in July 2020 when he was introduced. In the first year it was enough to finish third, but in the play-offs for the Champions League Monaco failed to Shakhtar Donetsk. The French champions from 2017 are currently only sixth.
According to a report in the newspaper “L’Équipe”, Dmitri Rybolowlew, the very wealthy club boss from Russia, most recently had a quarrel with the 50-year-old Kovac. The prominently strengthened squad, which also includes Kevin Volland, Alexander Nübel and U21 European champion Ismail Jakobs, too often fell short of expectations for his taste.
Most recently, however, things had improved again with three wins from four games, the defeat in the top game at Paris St. Germain (0: 2) was the only one in the last seven league games. Monaco is also in the round of 16 in the Europa League. But apparently it was no longer true in the cabin either. Recently, there should have been tensions between the Berlin-born and the team, not least with captain and star striker Wissam Ben Yedder.
With this, Kovac suffered the same fate as in Munich. There he inherited Jupp Heynckes as the proud DFB Cup winner with Eintracht Frankfurt for the 2018/19 season. In his first year he got the double. After a disappointing start to the following season and the 1: 5 defeat at his former employer Frankfurt, Kovac was laid off in Munich at the beginning of November 2019 and replaced by Hansi Flick.