The impressive world record held by Julien Bouron, a huge AS Monaco fan
Julien Bouron owns 1,146 AS Monaco shirts © AS Monaco
31-year-old Julien Bouron, a lifelong fan of the Principality’s club from a small village in Burgundy between Dijon and Auxerre, shares his passion for collecting AS Monaco shirts with Monaco Tribune.
Usually, the Performance Centre in La Turbie has AS Monaco players training on its pitches. But a month ago, it was the club’s shirts that took over the field — unique collector’s items retracing the club’s entire history from the 1950s to the present day. In total, no fewer than 1,146 shirts were laid out in the team’s diagonal pattern, from the oldest to the newest, and officially certified by a judicial officer representing SCP Fontaine-Pedroni. They all belong to Julien Bouron, who remains as obsessed as ever with finding new pieces to expand his collection.
“Retracing the club’s history through its shirts”
His love for ASM dates back to the age of six, after a club victory in Auxerre in March 2000, the year of Monaco’s seventh French league title. Since then, he has received a home shirt every birthday and an away shirt every Christmas. He got his first shirt at the age of 12 — one worn in the League Cup by former Argentine midfielder Lucas Bernardi. “It was the happiest day of my life,” he recalls, remembering being on holiday in the region with his parents.
Julien Bouron pays no attention to Monaco’s sporting results. For him, the motivation lies elsewhere. “I believe that a club’s history isn’t only about the good times. It’s like a love story — there are ups and downs. The dark years are part of the history too. I collect shirts from when the club was stuck in Ligue 2 just as much as from when it reached the Champions League final. The goal is to retrace the club’s history through its shirts,” he explains.
Thanks to a wide network of contacts, Julien is always on the lookout online for rare finds. His choices are based on a specific model or distinctive lettering. Living in the countryside, he stores his collection in a 30 m² room. Around 95% of his shirts are part of his permanent catalogue, while the remaining 5% serve as exchange pieces to acquire those he’s still missing.
“The diagonal, ASM’s trademark”
Among his favourite shirts, Julien admits a soft spot for those designed by the American brand with the swoosh in the late 1980s, “with shiny stripes.” But what truly captured his heart is the iconic diagonal, created by Princess Grace in the early 1960s. “It’s very symbolic — it’s ASM’s trademark. Every year when the new shirt is released, people say it looks the same as last season’s. But that’s what makes it our identity, and I think it’s a very strong marker,” he says.
To obtain his precious items, Julien rarely travels to stadiums. Instead, he relies on his social media presence, where he regularly receives offers. Last year, he managed to acquire — at a high price — the striped shirt worn by ASM in the 1950s. With so many items in his possession, the collector has also taken a keen interest in the club’s history, citing Henri Biancheri and Jean Petit among his idols — great players he never saw play but identifies with. Defender Gaël Givet, a key figure of the 2000s, is the most frequently named on his shirts — purely by coincidence, he says.
Julien shows no sign of slowing down his collection, knowing exactly which match and year each shirt corresponds to. However, he insists he will never part with “the striped one and the Champions League final shirt.” Now the holder of the world record, Julien Bouron dethrones Florian Thürler, a Liverpool fan who displayed his 1,048 shirts in Switzerland last August. “I’ll have to send him a message!” he jokes.
The club responded through its Deputy General Director, Olga Dementeva: “We are delighted to have supported Julien’s initiative, whose goal is to share his passion through his collection. Beyond the record he set himself, the presentation offers the opportunity to travel through time and relive AS Monaco’s rich history.”