The 2025/2026 season is a bit of a sensation in the French league. While in England, there are 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 top flight is an 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 top flight last May. A major 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 finally sees a city take a little more place on the national football scene now that Paris has two clubs in the elite and the Île-de-France region is experiencing a real excitement that is not limited to this level.
If we focus on Ligue 1 , Paris Saint-Germain has a team that has won the Champions League, a financial strength 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 is obviously favorite to be its own successor and will not see its status evolve for a long time. Paris FC on the other hand enjoys an ambitious new project which allows it to dream bigger. Promoted thanks to its title of champion of Ligue 2 , 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 that saw them spend €57.3 million, Paris FC has recruited some interesting names such as 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 key players 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 Champions League qualifying places.
Red Star starts to dream, Versailles is playing for promotion
Two Parisian clubs shining in Ligue 1 and a suburban club making waves in Ligue 2. Indeed, after finishing fifteenth last season, Red Star , managed by Grégory Poirier, has continued its momentum and made a solid start to the season. Currently fourth, three points behind the top three of Troyes, Saint-Étienne, and Pau, the club from Audon is still far from promotion to Ligue 1, but is progressing and can dream of a feat. The club's objective is rather to aim for promotion within five years, as president Patrice Haddad told L'Équipe : "That's obviously the long-term ambition," the president concedes. "Football in France is in danger, and so are the clubs. We mustn't rush and climb the ladder season after season. It will be our young players who will also have this ambition, to aim for excellence. Ligue 1 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 the past four years. Fifth for its first season in National 1 in 2023, the Yvelines club then had to fight for its survival 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 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. Club president Alexandre Mulliez took over the club two years ago and had talked about promotion 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 stance as its manager confided to So Foot : " We don't even talk about it internally." I'm more used to setting hyper-ambitious goals to show the level of investment the management and shareholders have 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 club's structure wasn't at all ready to accommodate this kind of goal. Since then, I've oily talked about staying up. "
In the lower divisions, the Ile-de-France clubs also shine
FC Fleury 91, on the other hand, should be in danger of staying up. Currently eighth, the Essonne club was 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 stay at this level. The same goes for Paris 13 Atletico , which has a stadium with only 1,000 seats and limited resources. Currently 13th after finishing 14th last season, the Gobelins will still have to fight. Finally, in National 2, 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 promotion to National 1 after the exclusion of AC Ajaccio. Over the last few seasons, Bobigny has achieved 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, making it a benchmark in this championship.
Créteil has just launched a new era with its acquisition this summer by billionaire Xavier Niel. "I grew up here and I'm proud of it. I haven't forgotten where I come from. Helping the Béliers go as high as possible is my way of giving back to this city a little of what it gave me. Kaaris shone a light on Sevran; I want to shine a light on Créteil. The project? Invest in the future, with the creation and development of a training center; professionalize the club, by strengthening its resources and allying itself with more partners; make Créteil shine, by attracting a larger audience to the stadium and modernizing the club's image ," he announced at the time of the acquisition. For the moment, the alchemy 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 have made a good start and are in second place despite their promoted status.
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