Poor little rich kids

AT least Monaco turned up. Their 2-0 defeat by Juventus was altogether more honorable than Atletico Madrid's inexplicably tame surrender to Real in the other Champions League semifinal.
For romantics willing on the underdogs, it was a disappointing week. For both, there was a sad feel of finality – even futility – an unmistakable sense that they had gone as far as they could.
But even if the final seems certain to be contested by all-too-familiar overdogs, the team – and the story – of the tournament surely have to be about the 'poor relations' of the richest corner of the planet.
This season's tale began back in July when they had to qualify for the Champions League which they eventually did by beating Villareal in a two-legged playoff. They soon announced they meant business by outplaying Spurs at Wembley before going on to win the group.
Then came those memorable duels with Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund with yesterday's clash against Juve being their 60th match – eight more than United and you don't hear them bleating about being tired.
You don't see many Monaco shirts and you don't meet many Monaco fans either. That's because it's not a proper team and not a proper place – just a tax haven for 38,000 super rich who are more interested in yachts, casinos and caviar than football.
One in three residents is a millionaire, there are more billionaires than anywhere else and one of them owns this curate's egg of a club. Dimitry Rybolovlev thought he'd do 'an Abramovich' when he bought 66% of Les Rouges et Blancs from the ruling Grimaldi family in 2012.
He got them promoted from Ligue 2 and, having spent Abramovich-style on Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho for €166 million, they returned to the Champions League after a second place finish in 2013.
But the man who paid Donald Trump US$95 for his Florida mansion was feeling the pinch. Accused of 'playing away' from home by an irate wife, he was on the wrong end of the world's richest divorce settlement – at US$4.8 billion. After that, he came up against Financial Fair Play rules.
Fair play was not how he'd acted in the break-up, concealing art treasures and even a Greek island(!) from his wife, but he was still forced to sell many of his other prized assets – his best players.
In one of football's more unlikely turning points, he changed tack and invested in youth. And unlike Chelsea and Manchester City, who are still awaiting the first academy graduate after years of huge investment, the man who made his fortune in potash found another rich seam – young French footballers.
With a scouting network second to none, Monaco have unearthed gems like Anthony Martial, who could end up costing Manchester United £58m, and even more precious Kylian Mbappe, 18, whose asking price is over £100m.
Blending these jewels with a few judicious signings – Falcao came back from his unhappy loan spells in England – is manager Leonardo Jardim, but because of the need to make ends meet, many of the current crop will be sold in the summer.
Rybolovlev has now settled with his wife after first getting US$4bn back when he successfully appealed only for her to counter claim. He has also come to terms with operating a selling club so will be unable to hang on to the finest of the current vintage.
With crowds averaging just 9,000 – most League One teams in England get more – there is very little money through the gate or merchandising. And there's no point in increasing capacity – as all the EPL's Big Six are doing – as they only fill half their 18,500 seats.
The Louis II stadium says it all about football's place in the principality's pecking order. Wedged into a block of offices and a shopping centre, it is below ground level and above a car park. It is, as some commentators have admitted, easy to walk past.
Monaco's is a cautionary tale of ownership in this lopsided football world: the big clubs will have watched yesterday's game like race horse owners eyeing the yearly bloodstock sales.
It is a team whose bright stars and attractive style might attract a wider following but it is one with no future - just one from which to handpick their finest thoroughbreds.
They may still win the league but even greater glory had briefly beckoned. If only they'd got a touch to those tantalising crosses that bamboozled even the hard men from Turin, it might have been different. And Mbappe missed a sitter but showed trickery as well as pace to further boost his price tag.
Alas, it was not even 'if only' for Atletico after an uncharacteristically lame effort from a Diego Simeone side. In fact, it looked as if the Argentine might have come to the end of his tether with the inevitability of another defeat to the neighbours.
But what the world will be watching is whether Monaco can rebuild the side once again and maybe wonder wide-eyed at the unlikely yet magical formula and its improbable origins. £1 = RM5.58