“We mustn’t be afraid to say we have a lot of ambition”: an immersion with the brand new Monaco United Women’s Football Club led by Marco Simone

In a Milan parking lot on Wednesday, August 27, young women in red and white tracksuits get off a bus bearing the colors of the Monaco United Women's Football Club. Their coach, Marco Simone, poses for a few selfies. At 56, the former striker, who won the Champions League with AC Milan in 1994 and four Scudetti, is the boss of a team "in the French 5th Division" that, on that day, is preparing to challenge, for the second match in its history, the AC Milan professional reserve team (they will lose 1-5).

"We're not even three months old," the coach rewinds . "We made our project official at the beginning of June and started training on August 7. Being able to put together a team so quickly is almost a miracle. But I'd had this project in mind for a while." Approached in the spring of 2024 by PSG's women's sporting director, Angelo Castellazzi, for the coaching position (Fabrice Abriel was ultimately chosen), he got into it. "From then on, I followed their entire season, watched D2, the Champions League, international matches. I made contacts everywhere, notably with Carolina Morace, an Italian reference (she was notably the coach of the Italian team between 2000 and 2005) . Then I wanted to build. The Principality also deserves its place at the highest women's level."

If the Rock already has, in D3, AS Monaco FF (without any particular relationship with the men's club), Simone then approached the Australian Justin Davis (42 years old) and the Italian Morris Pagniello (48 years old), ex-player turned agent, both directors of the Racing City Group, based in Dubai, one of the world leaders in private academies with 28,000 trainees (around 10,000 girls) including the important Genova International School of Soccer in Italy and Rayo Vallecano International in Spain.

"We want to build something new in Monaco," says Pagniello . "The Monaco brand is important. Our very ambitious project involves the girls, then the creation of a new academy and even a men's team." The Monaco club has the status of an association, but in a professional framework. "We will spend between 600,000 and 700,000 euros this year," announces Pagniello, who has the same project in Sicily, in Catania . "We will double each season. We want to move forward quickly with the desire to reach the French top 3 with Lyon and PSG. We must aim for Europe and qualification for the Champions League within five years."

Simone is therefore the coach but also the president. The team plays at the Didier-Deschamps stadium in Cap d'Ail, just across from Louis-II. MUWFC, registered at the fifth national level, in the Alpes-Maritimes district (a single group of eight teams), will play its first Championship match on Sunday against the ASM FF reserve team. To form a group of 26 players, two scouting days were first held in Menton in June, where two players stood out.

Simone had also made some contacts beforehand, notably with former ASM FF captain Houleye Deme (25), a defender and her first official signing. "I had decided to quit football... and I met Marco. He asked me to help him find other players. I got people talking by sharing on social media. Around ten girls were recruited from Monaco, Cannes, and Nice. Some had also quit. We all put our all into it. And we're truly blessed."

“It’s a great end-of-career challenge.”

After eight seasons at OGC Nice, Rachel Robert (midfielder, 34) acknowledges that "while many women's clubs are cutting back, here, it's the opposite. I signed a two-year contract and I can live off my contract." Two-thirds of the squad nevertheless work mornings as mail carriers, waitresses, influencers, or are still students with good salaries. With more than 150 matches in D1, having played for OM, Paris FC, Juvisy and Fribourg, or Potsdam in the Bundesliga, Marina Makanza (34, 15 caps) illustrates this crazy policy at this level. "It's a superb end-of-career challenge. There's a group to grow with much younger girls, some of whom are only 15, 16, or 17," she enthuses.

All of them train four times a week. A partnership has been signed with FC La Colle-sur-Loup to establish the training center, about thirty kilometers from Monaco. Simone designed the club's logo, approached a kit supplier, and found a local sponsor for his jersey (the luxury real estate group Marzocco). He's considering Valérie Gauvin (29 years old, 37 caps) as an assistant in a technical staff already rich with a team manager (Serge Dubourdeaux), a fitness coach (Alexandre Gallet), a goalkeeping coach (Stefano Prato), a physiotherapist (Davide Riberi), and a press officer (Loris Saytour). The club already has 6,000 followers on social media for its girls' team and more than 3,200 for a boys' team... which doesn't exist but could start in the 13th division in 2026.

"We must have an international vocation in the future. We will continue to recruit."

The club also has a YouTube channel, which broadcast the friendly match in Milan live. "We must have an international vocation in the future," Simone insists . "We are going to recruit more, notably a Senegalese international goalkeeper (Thiaba Gueye) and an English striker (Lawrence Kay) . I launched the "Monaco United Challenge" with the objective of having a monthly match against clubs like Juventus Turin, Inter Milan or others abroad thanks to the Racing City Group network. I want to start experimenting. Frankly, I am having a lot of fun with these girls. We know that there is a time needed to learn, to grow, and that we cannot shorten it. But we must not be afraid to say that we have a lot of ambition." And the defeat (1-2) in the first round of the Coupe de France in Carros, last Sunday, did not dampen the enthusiasm.