A familiar face returned to Ligue 1 when Thilo Kehrer joined Monaco last January, initially on loan from West Ham. The former Paris Saint-Germain centre-back arrived at the Principality club with a reputation to rebuild after a relatively mediocre spell in London. He did that, and then some.
Kehrer joined PSG as a youngster for €37m from Schalke in 2018, but despite 128 appearances for Les Parisiens he never established himself as first-choice in the long term. He then suffered a fate that has become all too familiar in recent years at the Parc des Princes, when he was 'elevated' in 2022.
“The experiences I had at PSG helped me enormously in terms of personal development and as a professional player. I will take with me the experiences I have had in these four years,” Kehrer said earlier this year in an exclusive interview with Get French Football News.
He emphasized the positives, but nevertheless regretted the way it ended. “There is that side of football. There is more competitiveness, more games and financially the game is growing and becoming more and more of a business. It is not a situation that you like to experience and that is not experienced positively,” says the German international. “For a player, because of his mentality, because of his self-confidence, you always want to be wanted, to be respected, to be appreciated and if that's not the case and you end up in a 'box', then of course.' We are not necessarily in a good place.”
Always cautious, looking at the bigger picture, Kehrer says he did not take his expulsion from PSG seriously. It won't be a matter of trying to get revenge when he faces his former club at the Stade Louis II on Sunday, however attractive the story may be. “There is always a motivation against your former club,” Monaco manager Adi Hütter nevertheless added.
He left PSG for West Ham in the summer of 2022 and despite a positive start, a combination of high squad turnover and recurring injuries saw him lose his place in the squad in his final six months before making the move to Monaco, initially on rental basis. in January 2024, before the move was made permanent in the summer. With a big grin, he announced to reporters that he would stay at the club after his loan spell. He is happy to be in Monaco and Monaco is certainly happy to have him.
His experiences abroad, after leaving Germany at a young age, make him a huge asset, not only on the field but also in the dressing room. “When you're a little older than the majority of the locker room, when you've played at different clubs, in different leagues with world-class players, you've obviously experienced things that others in the locker room haven't experienced,” said Kehrer, who in a very young dressing room has taken on a new dimension.
“The most important thing for me is just being myself. When you see things or have things to say, I say them, always with respect and for the good of the team and the individual I am speaking to. However, I feel like it is appreciated,” he added.
Vocal in the dressing room and on the pitch, his role as a leader has manifested in his appointment as vice-captain this season. “He is a real leader here, he speaks several languages and is connected to all the players,” says Hütter, who, despite the high turnover in the team, has already started the German international eighteen times this season.
He is the standard setter when it comes to his intensity on the pitch, but also when it comes to demanding more from his own teammates. “During my years at PSG I developed the mentality of getting somewhere or playing in a team with the aim of winning titles. Of course it is not the same at all clubs and in all contexts, but I have been in teams with a lot of potential and so wherever I have been, including here, the aim is to win titles,” Kehrer said.
Words like 'mentality' and 'leadership' are elusive and unquantifiable, but their effects were noted during the victory over Strasbourg in November. Eliesse Ben Seghir struggled in the first half, pushing the ball away and disconnecting from his teammates. Eliesse Ben Seghir had a difficult first half. During halftime, Kehrer intervened.
“I chose to give him some advice. I told him to play smarter because he often likes to dribble and play one-on-one. His opponents know that, so they play him hard,” Kehrer said after the match. The effects were clearly visible in the second half when Ben Seghir scored a match-winning brace.
In a team as young as Monaco's, players like Kehrer are a necessity. But Kehrer's interest in the Principality club is not merely abstract. He is a well-rounded and flawless centre-back – something of a luxury. He is composed on and off the ball, rarely caught out of position, covers spaces well and knows when and how to apply more intensity. The last two aspects are crucial in Hütter's demanding, risky, reward system.
His impact can be seen in the statistics, with Monaco conceding fewer goals in the second half of last season than in the first part of the season when they were without the German defender.
He is also important in both boxes. A good header, he also has a knack for exploiting spaces in the opponent's penalty area. He has already scored three goals this season, benefiting from the excellent dead-ball performance of the likes of Aleksandr Golovin, Lamine Camara and Caio Henrique.
Kehrer, both on and off the field, has therefore become indispensable. He has returned to Ligue 1 a different player than the one who left. There now radiates certainty and confidence in everything he does and that stems from the experiences he has gained, but also from the confidence that is now shown in him. He is comfortable with his role at the club and his place in the dressing room, and that never seemed to be the case at PSG.
But in Ligue 1 and at Monaco he has shown that he is a Champions League level player, and someone who is so central to a team that is highly ranked in both France and Europe.
GFFN | Luke Entwistle
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