Monaco extended Biereth's deal 15 months ago. Now he can't make the squad
In his first half-season at Monaco, Mika Biereth scored 13 Ligue 1 goals and chased a club record. On Saturday, for the second league game in a row, he was not even in the squad as Monaco drew 2-2 with Toulouse.
- Biereth was left out against Lens and again against Toulouse; Minamino and Mamadou Coulibaly also missed Saturday's squad (L'Équipe, Foot Mercato).
- His Ligue 1 season so far: two appearances off the bench, about 45 minutes, no goals. His two goals came in the Conference League qualifiers against Górnik Zabrze.
- Monaco extended his contract in July 2025 to June 2030; he scored 2 goals in 32 Ligue 1 games last season.
Biereth arrived from Sturm Graz in January 2025 for a reported €13m plus add-ons and scored at a pace the club called a 21st-century record for Monaco. In July 2025 they rewarded him with a contract to 2030. Then the goals stopped: 2 in 32 league games in 2025-26, according to Wikipedia and Foot Mercato.
The problem now is the queue. Monaco's official squad lists Folarin Balogun, Matthis Abline, Paris Brunner, Mathys Detourbet and Ansu Fati as forwards alongside him. Foot Mercato links his fall to Balogun's collapsed move to Everton, which kept one more striker at the club. Abline scored against Toulouse and Fati came on in the 75th minute; Biereth watched from outside the squad.
Filipe Luís has not explained the omission. In August, Foot Mercato reported, the coach said Biereth had “du potentiel dans la surface” and would feel freed once he scored his first goal. He did, twice, in Europe, and has not started a league game since.
Denmark have noticed too. He won his caps in 2025 but was not in Brian Riemer's squad for the September and October Nations League games (TV2). Monaco play at CSKA Sofia in the Conference League on Thursday, the next chance to see whether he is back in the group.
A January loan suits everyone
Our editorial team thinks Biereth needs minutes more than Monaco need him, and a loan in January is the honest answer for both. A striker who scored 13 times in half a season does not forget how; he needs a team that plays him every week, and Monaco, top of the table with five other forwards, cannot. If he is still outside the squad by the end of October, we expect the loan talk to start; if Filipe Luís starts him in the Conference League, we will revisit this.
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