Maurizio Pochettino will realise a childhood ambition on Thursday, when Inter Club d’Escaldes become the first Andorran side to play in the league or group phase of a European competition. The 25-year-old defender grew up watching Espanyol, the club where his father Mauricio — now head coach of the United States — was first a player and then manager, and where he dreamed of playing in Europe as Espanyol reached the 2007 Uefa Cup final. “It feels like it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Pochettino said. “For such a small country, such a small league that isn’t known around Europe… it’s a dream come true.”
Inter made history on a late August evening. After the first leg of their Conference League play-off against Drita in Kosovo finished 2-2, Inter dominated the return leg without scoring and the tie went to penalties. Mauricio Pochettino watched from the stands as his son found the bottom corner, and a Drita miss then allowed striker Faysal Chouaib to finish the job and spark wild celebrations at Andorra’s national stadium.
The achievement caps an extraordinary period in the club’s history. Inter were founded in 1991 and helped form Andorra’s top flight four years later, remaining there until relegation in 2015. They returned to the Primera Divisió under new ownership in 2017 and won their first league title in 2019-20; five titles in the past seven seasons have emphatically ended the dominance of FC Santa Coloma.
Few people are as closely associated with Andorran football as Ildefons Lima. The former defender represented Andorra for 26 years — the longest international career in men’s football history — and leads the nation in appearances, with 137, and goals, with 11. He was part of the boardroom group that oversaw Inter’s rise and also helped win titles on the pitch during the final years of his playing career. “Inter’s qualification shows it is possible for people to believe that reaching the final stages of the Conference League is a realistic objective,” Lima said. He stepped away from the club after retiring in 2023.
A year later, Felip Ortiz was appointed manager. The 49-year-old spent much of his life connected with Barcelona, first as a youth player and later as a coach, and has instilled a possession-based style that has paid dividends. “I never thought about it [playing in Europe],” Ortiz said. “When you think about it, you don’t only think about getting there but also the way you want to get to these competitions. Being at Barcelona made me brave in my tactics — I am happy because playing this type of football has helped us achieve our goal.”
The Primera Divisió draws limited attention in Andorra, let alone beyond its borders, and most locals prefer to watch Andorra FC, the club owned by former Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Piqué that plays in the Spanish second tier. Several teams share stadiums in the 10-team top flight, so matches are commonly played back-to-back on the same day, and each side plays the others three times — meaning players end up seeing the same faces every weekend. “Perhaps the feel of the league is not as professionalised, but the end result can be better than anywhere else,” Pochettino said. After coming through the academies at Southampton and Tottenham before spending six months at Watford, he moved to Spain and played in the semi-professional third and fourth tiers; when the chance to join Inter came about in 2025, the prospect of European football was something he could not ignore. “You have the chance to do something you might not get the chance to do elsewhere,” he said. “It was a great decision to come here. More eyes are on you, the spotlight is bigger, it gives you a chance to push on in your career.”
Though Pochettino admitted the lack of fans and atmosphere at matches can make the league feel “cold”, he believes the competition is progressing. “The teams in the league are getting more competitive each year because they all have that incentive to play in Europe, which is a financial incentive also,” he said. “Everyone is pushing, making better teams every year.” Inter are projected to earn over 3m euros (£2.5m) from playing in the league stage — about 2.5 times their annual budget. Andorra is the 12th nation to have a club qualify for European competition for the first time since the Conference League was introduced in 2021; San Marino and Montenegro are the only Uefa members who have not.
Achievements of this magnitude are unheard of in a nation accustomed to being a punching bag on the international stage. Andorra is a country of just 90,000 people, sandwiched between Spain and France high in the Pyrenees, and such a small population and a lack of quality infrastructure have not been conducive to footballing success. The national team has won just 14 of their 232 games since becoming members of Fifa in 1996, and once went 16 games without scoring. They sit 175th in the Fifa men’s world rankings, with only San Marino (211), Liechtenstein (207) and Gibraltar (201) below them among European nations.
There are signs of change, even though the ranking is at a nine-year low. The Uefa Nations League has allowed Andorra to play more meaningful games against opponents of a similar level, more than two years have passed since they conceded five or more goals in a game — a 5-0 defeat by Spain on the eve of Euro 2024 — and in 2025 they lost only 1-0 and 2-0 to England. Inter’s success has also propelled Andorra into the top 50 of Uefa’s club coefficient rankings, meaning that for the first time four Andorran clubs will enter the qualifiers for European competitions next summer. “Hopefully, this can also help Andorran football continue to grow and develop step by step, and show that with the right work and ambition, Andorran clubs can compete at this level,” Lima said. Ortiz added: “As a league it’s incredible — maybe players who before didn’t want to come to our league will come. That will make the league more competitive and help it to grow.”
Inter’s European adventure begins with a trip to Swedish champions Mjallby on Thursday, before fixtures against 1991 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade, Champions League regulars FC Copenhagen and La Liga side Getafe. “We know it will be a massive challenge playing against some great teams with much bigger budgets than us, but we also believe in ourselves,” Pochettino said. “We’ve been able to get here so we deserve to be here. We are going to try to show the rest of Europe that we are a team that can make things difficult for the bigger opponents, and that we can get points and belong here.”