There was more than meets the eye in AS Monaco’s promotion back to Ligue 1 back in June after two seasons in the French second division, a promotion widely perceived as the upshot of the money poured into the club by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev who took over two thirds of the shareholding on the eve of Christmas 2011.

The headline-grabbing transfers realised by ASM this transfer window (Falcao for €60m, Moutinho and James Rodriguez for €70m) have seen the club spring into the limelight within a short space of time, several years after having last been seen on football pages with Didier Deschamps’ side reaching the Champions’ League final in 2003-2004. This sudden burst onto the media scene has made football fans rue the arrival of yet another nouveau riche side on the European stage, the club of a city admittedly symbolising anything but football and whose usually empty Louis-II stadium has traditionally been host of major European teams at the start of the season in the European Supercup.

Yet, for all the artifices surrounding the club’s promotion in Ligue 1 and its impending raid on European football, one should bear in mind this club actually does have a history, and a pretty rich one at that. Indeed, AS Monaco’s past might be richer than that of all the other sugar-daddy clubs we have witnessed springing into the limelight in the past decade, from Chelsea and Manchester City to Malaga and domestic rivals PSG.

AS Monaco was founded on August 23^rd, 1924, the love-child of Herculis football club (itself created in 1903, making it the second-oldest club in French football history after Le Havre) and several other sporting clubs of the city including the Swimming Club and aptly-named AC Riviera.

After steadily climbing the lower ranks of amateur football, the club won the French South-East League in 1933 and gained professional status. The side bolstered its squad with its first ever foreigners, Hungary-born Szanilo and Szentimiklosy, but narrowly failed to achieve promotion to the first league the next year.  What’s more, club stadium Moneghetti was deemed insufficient for the French top flight, forcing the club to a demotion to amateur football in which it remained for over a decade.

On April 23^rd, 1939, Stade Louis II was inaugurated allowing the club to have an upgraded stadium and get their professional status back as soon as league football resumed after World War 2. In 1948, the club climbed back to the second league, and remained there until 1953, when thanks to the support of the royal family setting in (Prince Rainier having succeeded his football-averse father Prince Louis II), AS Monaco was granted access to the top French football league.

With charismatic coach Lucien Leduc and legendary captain Michel Hidalgo at their helm, AS Monaco gained stability in Division 1 and eventually won their first silverware in 1960, a French Cup win over Saint-Etienne.

The next year, with a new jersey designed by Princess Grace Kelly swapping the vertical red-and-white stripes for diagonal ones (a design still in force today), ASM won the French League for the first time, a feat repeated two seasons later as Henri Biancheri and his team-mates earned the first League-Cup double in the ASM’s history.

Failing to capitalise on these achievements, the team progressively lost its best players and went down the Division 1 rankings with relegation progressively looming. In 1969 it was sent packing to Ligue 2 but went back up the following season, constantly on the verge of extinction in the French top flight. The year 1973 witnessed ASM bringing in its greatest ever player, Argentinian striker Delio Onnis who became their best-ever scorer over the next six years (223 goals). The lanky striker, a precursor of the fox-in-the-box types, became a cult hero in French football with his Antique Greece features and name – perhaps a sign of destiny for a club once known as Herculis.

Onnis’ performances failed to lift the club back from the relegation zone and ASM was demoted again in 1976, suffering from the lack of home support and competition with neighbouring rival Olympique de Marseille – a working city where football earns an almost religious following.

Despite relegation, Delio Onnis decided to shrug off the interest of several French and foreign sides to stay put at ASM, leading the club to back-to-back Division 2 and Division 1 victories in 1978 and 1979, the first of its kind.

The turn of the eighties saw the club gaining momentum on the national and European scene, earning another league title in 1982 and setting a trend of feeding players to the national team (Amoros, Ettori, among others). In 1987, a young Arsène Wenger joined the side from Nancy and won the title in his first year at the helm with key players such as Glenn Hoddle and Patrick Battiston. Wenger also helped develop the careers of talented youngsters including George Weah, Lilian Thuram and Emmanuel Petit.

The 1990s witnessed the club gaining a European stature, replacing Weah with world champion Jurgen Klinsmann in 1992 and reaching the Champions’ League semi-final in 1993-1994, defeated by AC Milan. Stalwart Jean-Luc Ettori retired having beaten the record for most games played in Division 1, while another club legend Thierry Henry made his debut in a 0-2 defeat against OGC Nice in 1994, eventually helping the club to a league title in 1997 under the leadership of Jean Tigana.

The following year, the side reached the Champions’ League semi-final again, losing to Juventus after having thrown out Manchester United earlier in the competition.

A team boasting the likes of Fabien Barthez, Willy Sagnol, Rafael Marquez, John Arne Riise and David Trezeguet reaped the last league title to date for ASM in 2000 as Didier Deschamps became head coach. Steady performances in the league allowed the club to take part in the Champions’ League in 2003-2004, when they famously beat Real Madrid and nouveaux riches Chelsea on their way to the final. Monaco dominated the early exchanges but an injury to captain Ludovic Giuly changed the momentum and saw Mourinho’s Porto side cruise to a 3-0 victory.

A downbeat Monaco team surrendered its chief players to bigger sides (Giuly to Barcelona, Morientes, at the end of his loan spell, returned to Real Madrid, Rothen to Paris SG) and progressively went down the rankings, until May 29^th, 2011 when, on the eve of their 2000^th game in the French top flight, a 0-2 defeat to Olympique Lyonnais sent the club to Ligue 2 after thirty-four consecutive years in the elite division.

It is thanks to Rybolovlev taking the reins that the club is now back to Ligue 1, but the chapter he will now write at the helm of AS Monaco will certainly not be the first in the club’s rich history book.