Monaco United enters its second season with clear ambitions to keep climbing France’s women’s football pyramid, following a historic 2025-2026 campaign that saw the Monégasque club claim the District championship and secure promotion to Regional level.
President and head coach Marco Simone said the club’s aim is to continue moving up the divisions and gradually establish Monaco United among the top tier of women’s football in France. The step up to Regional level marks a genuine turning point for a side that went unbeaten throughout last season’s league campaign, with promotion to Division 3 now the club’s clearly stated target for the year ahead.
Simone described last season as extraordinary, but said the club’s underlying approach remains unchanged heading into this new chapter: working hard with humility, building a strong identity, and competing in every match. To support that push, the squad has been strengthened with several new signings, chosen not only to raise the team’s sporting level but also to fit the mentality and spirit Simone wants to build. He said the new arrivals had settled in well, with the process of developing on-pitch understanding and automatisms now well underway, something he said was already showing plenty of promising signs.
Club captain Houleyemata Deme echoed that sense of continuity and ambition, saying the group’s goals remain the same as last season, if anything with even greater determination. She noted that several of the new players had already trained alongside the squad toward the end of last season, helping ease their integration, and that the team continues building its cohesion day by day.
Promotion to Regional level has also brought structural change, with Monaco United now fielding two senior teams, including a reserve side competing at District level. Simone was clear that this is about far more than meeting a regulatory requirement tied to promotion, describing it as a genuine sporting development tool that gives the full squad valuable playing time and keeps competition for places high across the group. He emphasised that the reserve team is not a secondary consideration within the club’s broader project, but an integral part of Monaco United’s development, with players moved between the two sides depending on the coaching staff’s assessment of form and the demands of a given weekend.
The club’s growth extends well beyond the first team. This season sees the introduction of U15 and U18 categories, joining the U11 side already established since Monaco United’s founding, bringing the club’s total to five teams across both senior and youth football. Simone said building something built to last is a central part of the club’s identity, noting that seeing U11, U15 and U18 players wearing the Monaco United jersey just a year after the club’s creation shows the project is already putting down roots, with the long-term ambition that a young girl could one day join the club at a very young age and eventually work her way into the first team.
Deme, reflecting on the demands of the season ahead, said the squad will need to hold firm to the values that underpinned last season’s success, adding that the preparation currently underway is essential to meeting the challenges to come.
Among the season’s standout fixtures will be the first-ever Monaco derby between Monaco United and AS Monaco Football Féminin, with the two sides set to meet twice during the league campaign. Simone called it an inevitably special and historic match, one that will carry a different kind of emotional weight for players and supporters alike, while stressing the need to stay focused on the football itself. He said he hoped the derby could grow into a fixture of real significance in the years ahead, and help raise the profile of women’s football in Monaco more broadly.
Looking ahead, Simone said the priority is fielding a team capable of being competitive from the outset, improving as the season progresses, and quickly establishing itself near the top of the Regional table, all while keeping an eye on the club’s longer-term development. He added that he will be watching closely how the reserve team and younger players progress over the course of the season, saying that if Monaco United finishes the year sporting stronger, better structured, and closer to reaching France’s national divisions, the club will have taken another significant step forward.
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