“I try to do my best and live the moment”
Still in the top 5 of the best training centers in France this season, the Academy of AS Monaco is in the spotlight in the “Rookie” series. Throughout the season, discover the young shoots of the club. For this twelfth episode, meet Yannick Gesan, U17 midfielder, recently upgraded to U19.
Growth at high speed. On and off the pitch. With almost 1.85m under the gauge, and a lot of centimeters gained in recent months, Yannick Gesan continues to grow. Even chosen on the lawns of the Academy, since he has just played two games with the U19s, he who is only 16 years old and who joined the Red and White at the end of 2020.
Born in Ivry-sur-Seine in 2005, he is awe-inspiring in the Tours region, in Indre-et-Loire. It was there that he hit his first balls, first in front of his home then by accompanying his big brother to the club of La Riche, from U7 to U12, before joining the club in which Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny were revealed. This is where he catches the eye of AS Monaco. “I was in Tours, I took part in detections during the Christmas holidays and then I participated in the Tournoi Sans Frontières in Sens (Yonne) with Monaco and everything went well. “
The importance of schooling
Even if starting from almost 1000 kilometers from his family cocoon was inevitably “a little complicated” and “a sacrifice to be made”, the choice was made in a clear manner. “I chose Monaco because the training center is very famous. The team was coming off its good run in the Champions League as well, with Kylian Mbappé in particular. It is a club that makes you dream in France. There was not much hesitation. The school aspect, with the possibility of integrating a general course, was also very important since it was my parents who made the final decision. Everything was there for me to come here. Everything is going well, the city is beautiful and we are in superb conditions here. “
A relay “with a large volume of play”
This successful adaptation is transcribed on the field, with performances which have earned him a recent rise in U19 in the last matches. A fair reward for the left-handed relay midfielder, as described by Manu Dos Santos, his coach in U17: “He has a large volume of play, a lot of activity, both in recovery and in the offensive contribution. He also has a good readability, he often positions himself very well to cut the passing lines. He must still work technically, because he has room for improvement in this area. “
“Obviously, I was very happy, even if as long as I’m on a field, in U17 or U19, I’m happy,” says the young player. It all happened a bit abruptly. When the coach came to see me to say that I was going to play in U19, I thought it would be for an entry into the game, but in the end I was the holder. Everything went well during the match, there were no problems, even if in U19 I have the impression that my teammates are more mature in their way of playing, in their management of things. “
If the “Rookie” could have been a little surprising of this convocation in the higher category, Manu Do Santos is not called that everything went well. “The feedback I have had is quite positive, which is not surprising because it is someone who is invested in the work on a daily basis, who is attentive and who transcribes what we are doing quite well. asks him, which allows him to progress quite quickly. He is very calm, very calm, even set back off the pitch. On the other hand, it changes completely when it is on the lawn. It allows him to have a little distance and peace of mind in relation to all that. “
“Playing at the Stade Louis-II would be a culmination but also the start of something”
From the top of the Academy’s terrace, looking straight ahead, Yannick Gesan does not need to look far for an objective. “Playing at the Stade Louis-II would be a culmination but also the start of something,” he admits. For that, there are not 10,000 solutions, you have to work. Only that pays off. Everyone has their own path. I try to do the maximum on my own, without wanting to follow in the footsteps of one or the other, and to live the present moment. “
Live the present moment but also project yourself towards your ultimate dream. That of following the trajectory of his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, from whom he is inspired “for the mental aspect, the professional and hardworking side”. To make his dream come true and one day set foot on the lawn of Louis-II, Yannick Gesan repeats the procedure to follow: “Only work pays off”.