After a disappointing ninth-place finish in last season's Ligue 1, AS Monaco football club, are enjoying a far better season. The Monégasques are amongst four sides who are all vying for a top-three spot which offers them a Champions League spot in the next year's campaign.
Like the character in "Around the World in Eighty Days" (the Jules Verne Classic published in 1872) the German, Boris Herrmann, flying the Monegasque flag finished the toughest sailing competition in the world, the Vendée Globe - solo around the world with no stopovers or assistance in just 80.