The 2025/2026 season serves as a small sensation on the scale of the French championship. While in England, we have 7 London clubs (Arsenal, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Fulham, Brentford and West Ham), 2 Manchester clubs (Manchester City and Manchester United) and 2 Liverpool clubs (Liverpool FC and Everton), seeing two clubs from the same city in the French elite is a anomaly. However, this is what is happening this summer since the defending champion, Paris Saint-Germain, has just seen its neighbor Paris FC promoted to the elite last May. A great first since the 1990-1991 season for the French championship with the presence of Racing Paris (formerly Matra Racing) with Paris Saint-Germain in Division 1. After 35 years of waiting, French football is finally seeing a city take a little more space on the national football scene now that Paris has two clubs in the elite and the Île-de-France region is experiencing real excitement which is not limited to this level.
If we focus on Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain has a team that won the Champions League, financial power incomparable with the rest of French football and remains on 11 French championship titles over the last 13 seasons. Currently leader of Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain are obviously favorites to be their own successor and will not see their status change for a long time. Paris FC, on the other hand, benefits from an ambitious new project which allows it to dream bigger. Promoted thanks to its Ligue 2 champion title, the club coached by Stéphane Gilli was bought last November by the Arnaut family while the Red Bull group obtained 10% of the Ile-de-France club. After an ambitious transfer window which saw it spend €57.3M, Paris FC recruited some interesting names like Otavio (FC Porto), Nhoa Sagui (Reims), Willem Geubbels (Saint-Gall), Moses Simon (FC Nantes), Hamari Traoré (Real Sociedad), Jonathan Ikoné (Fiorentina) and Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt). With executives like Obed Nkambadio, Maxime Lopez and Ilan Kebbal. And the least we can say is that it's off to a good start with a provisional eighth place in Ligue 1, six points behind Paris Saint-Germain and five points from the qualifying places in the Champions League.
The Red Star begins to dream, Versailles plays the climb
Two Parisian clubs which shine in Ligue 1 and a club from the suburbs which seduces in Ligue 2. Indeed, after finishing fifteenth last season, the Red Star which is managed by Grégory Poirier continued its momentum and made a solid start to the season. Currently fourth, three points behind the leading trio made up of Troyes, Saint-Étienne and Pau, the Audon club is still far from moving up to Ligue 1, but is progressing and can dream of an exploit. The club's objective is rather to aim for growth within five years as president Patrice Haddad confided to The Team : “this is obviously the long-term ambition,” concedes the president. Football in France is in danger and so are the clubs. We must not rush and climb the steps season after season. It will be our young people who will also have this ambition, to aim for excellence. The L1 by 2030 is reasonable.” In National 1, Île-de-France also places three teams with Versailles (2nd), Fleury (8th) and Paris FC (13th).
The most ambitious project is obviously that of Versailles which has been stable at this level for 4 years. Fifth for its first season in National 1 in 2023, the Yvelines club then had to fight for its maintenance by finishing 9th in 2024 and 13th in 2025. However, the start of the season is very different this time for the club coached by Jordan Gonzalez. Currently second with the best attack and the best defense in the championship, Versailles is one point behind Rouen, but with a game in hand. The Versaillais even have a small gap with their pursuers Dijon and Orléans who are five points behind. President of the club, Alexandre Mulliez took over the club two years ago and had mentioned a rise in three years, this could be the case this season even if Versailles does not put pressure on itself and now displays a more modest posture as its manager confided to So Foot : “we don't even talk about it internally. I tend to set hyper-ambitious objectives to show the level of investment of managers and shareholders in the company. That's what I did at the beginning when I arrived. Except that in fact, we weren't ready at all. The structure of the club was not at all ready to accommodate these kinds of objectives. Since then, I have only talked about maintenance.»
In the lower divisions, the Ile-de-France clubs also shine
The maintenance should, however, concern FC Fleury 91. Currently eighth, the Essonne club has been promoted from National 2. Renowned for its women's team which is currently 4th in D1 Arkema, Fleury sees its men's section hoping to remain at this level. Same thing for Paris 13 Atletico which has a stadium with only 1000 seats and limited resources. Currently 13th after finishing 14th last year, the Gobelins will still have to fight. Finally, on the National 2 side, three clubs from Île-de-France play in this division. In group C, FC 93 Bobigny-Bagnolet-Gagny (15th) and US Créteil (16th) missed their start to the season. For the Seine Saint-Denis club, the hope of moving up to National 1 after the exclusion of AC Ajaccio. Over the last few seasons, Bobigny has scored a 3rd place in 2020, a 4th place in 2021, a 4th place in 2022, a 3rd place in 2023, a 4th place in 2024 and a 2nd place in 2025, which makes it a benchmark in this championship.
Créteil has just launched a new era with its takeover this summer by billionaire Xavier Niel. “I grew up here and I’m proud of it. I don't forget where I come from. Helping the Rams to go as high as possible is my way of giving back to this city a little of what it gave me. Kaaris shed light on Sevran; I want to shed light on Créteil. The project? Investing in the future, with the creation and development of a training center; professionalize the club, by strengthening its resources and joining forces with more partners; make Créteil shine, by attracting a wider audience to the stadium and modernizing the image of the club”he announced at the time of the buyout. For the moment, the chemistry is not yet there and coach Karim Mokeddem was fired following poor results. Créteil, despite an ambitious project, will have to quickly get back on track. On the other hand, the Lusitanos of Saint-Maur got off to a good start and are in second place despite being promoted.
