Inter Club d'Escaldes and Maurizio Pochettino set for first-ever Andorran appearance in UEFA Conference League group phase
Maurizio Pochettino will realise a childhood ambition on Thursday when Inter Club d'Escaldes become the first Andorran side to play in the league phase of a European competition, appearing in the UEFA Conference League.
Pochettino, 25, grew up watching Espanyol as his father, Mauricio — now United States head coach — worked at the club, and he says: "It feels like it hasn't sunk in yet." Maurizio joined Inter Club d'Escaldes in August 2025 and has since been part of the side that secured the club's place in the competition.
Inter reached the group stage after a play-off against Drita: the first leg in Kosovo finished 2-2, the return leg was goalless despite Inter's dominance and the tie went to penalties. Mauricio Pochettino watched from the stands as his son "found the bottom corner", before a Drita miss allowed striker Faysal Chouaib to finish the job and spark wild celebrations at Andorra's national stadium.
Inter were founded in 1991, helped form Andorra's top flight four years later, were relegated in 2015, returned under new ownership in 2017 and won their first league title in 2019-20; they have taken five titles in the past seven seasons, ending the long dominance of FC Santa Coloma. Ildefons Lima, who represented Andorra for 26 years and leads the nation in appearances (137) and goals (11), was part of the boardroom group that oversaw Inter's rise and played in title-winning teams; Lima said: "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 stepped away from the club after he retired in 2023 and a year later Felip Ortiz was appointed manager. Ortiz, 49, who spent much of his life connected with Barcelona as a youth player and later a coach, implemented a possession-based approach; he said: "I never thought about it [playing in Europe]." Ortiz added: "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 Diviso receives limited attention domestically, where many spectators follow Andorra FC — the club owned by former Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Pique that plays in the Spanish second tier. Andorra's 10-team top flight features several shared stadiums with matches often staged back-to-back, each side plays the others three times and players commonly face the same opponents regularly. Maurizio came through the academies at Southampton and Tottenham, spent six months at Watford, moved to Spain to play in the semi-professional third and fourth tiers and said of joining Inter in 2025: "You have the chance to do something you might not get the chance to do elsewhere," adding: "It was a great decision to come here." He also accepted that "the lack of fans and atmosphere at matches can make the league feel 'cold'" while saying the competition is getting more competitive.
Inter are projected to earn over 3m euros (£2.5m) from playing in the league stage — about 2.5 times their annual budget — and their qualification makes Andorra 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 remain the only UEFA members who have not. Inter have been regulars in European qualifying but this will be their first appearance in the league phase. Andorra, a country of around 90,000 people between Spain and France in the Pyrenees, has won 14 of their 232 games since becoming FIFA members in 1996, once went 16 games without scoring, and sits 175th in the FIFA men's world rankings, with San Marino (211), Liechtenstein (207) and Gibraltar (201) the only European nations below them; over 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 1-0 and 2-0 to England.
Inter's run into the group phase has lifted Andorra into the top 50 of UEFA's club coefficient rankings and, for the first time, means four Andorran clubs will enter European qualifiers next summer. Lima said: "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." 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 campaign opens with a trip to Swedish champions Mjallby on Thursday, followed by fixtures against Red Star Belgrade, FC Copenhagen and 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."
