Magnetic monopoles such as the t'Hooft Polyakov monopoles are special field configurations within some SU(2) gauge theory, that are characterised by their non trivial topology, thus calling them one instance of a topological defect. Electrons (thinking of them as electric monopoles) are considered as elementary particles, but why is there not reason to believe, that they are also just some defect in a gauge theory that we don't know of yet ?
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To some sense, every charged particle is "a defect" of opposingly charged (virtual/real/quasi) particle. Classical example - holes in a semiconductor are positively charged defects in lattice. – Agnius Vasiliauskas Dec 16 '21 at 10:03