Wout Faes: "We know how to do the work"
*This interview appears in full in l'Équipe -- click here to read the full article
AS Monaco defender Wout Faes' arrival on loan from Leicester City has coincided with the Principality side becoming the form team in Ligue 1 McDonald's -- hear more from the Belgian in a recent interview.
While Faes was a solid defender in his previous spell in Ligue 1, at Stade de Reims, even becoming a Belgian international for the first time, he struggled to adapt to life in England, and was seen as emblematic of Leicester's struggles over the last few years. Thus, his joining a Monaco side who were suffering an injury crisis in defence (Eric Dier, Christian Mawissa and Mohammed Salisu have all missed more than half of their team's matches this season) was hardly seen as a solution. But despite enduring a difficult start to life on the Riviera he's become a lynchpin under Sébastien Pocognoli, playing a major role in the team's meteoric rise.
Do you consider yourself someone who is unique among professional footballers?
In what sense?
You don't have social media.
Then you could have even said strange (laughs)! Ever since I was young, I've never given importance to that. People like to share the beautiful things that happen to them. I'd rather be discreet. You can make a big thing out of it, and it puts you out there. But if I did this, it would sound wrong. And it's to keep my attention on other things. I have a son now. When I come home, I don't want to waste my time scrolling on my phone. If I were on the networks, I wouldn't forgive myself for not being with my son and wife when I go home, in addition to having gone several nights in a row because of football.
First match with the team for Wout Faes 🇧🇪
‣ #ASMFCL pic.twitter.com/aAmhx5QLvF— AS Monaco EN 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco_EN) January 16, 2026
Not being on social media also protects you from criticism as a footballer...
I think those who have some are not going to look at the comments below a post - well, I hope! For me, there are only two or three opinions that matter: that of the coach, my teammates and the people I work with. They are the ones who know what we did in training and what we wanted to put in place on the weekends.
In Ligue 1, in 10 days with you, Monaco has taken as many points (23) as in 17 without you...
It's not just with me, it's the whole team, right? When I got here, we were 10th. You can say it was a crisis. There was little confidence, we could feel it. I tried to bring positive energy to the training. When we were 10th, everyone was doing their job, nobody was hiding. That's also what makes us have these results. Because we didn't complain or do 5% less when it was wrong. The quality was there, it needed results. When you’re a player, you don’t live to play great matches and lose 1-0.
Is there a game where you thought your game was finally in place collectively?
The one we won at Lens (3-2, February 21), when we were behind 2-0. With the atmosphere in this stadium, it would have been easy to crack and let the score slip. That we were able to level the score, it gave us a mental surplus. There, we thought, "OK, if we can do it in the leader..." In all three games against Paris, we really put them in trouble. We saw that they had won 8-2 in total against Chelsea (5-2, 3-0, in the 8th finals of the Champions League). Against us, it was evenly-fought and we won the third game (3-1, March 6). But the most difficult encounters are against the Brests, the Angers, and we also know how to do the work there as well.
