The 2025-26 Ligue 2 season kicks off this Saturday afternoon at 2 PM with the match between Guingamp and the newly promoted Le Mans.Favorites for promotion, battle for survival: we present to you what...
The 2025-26 Ligue 2 season kicks off this Saturday afternoon at 2 PM with the match between Guingamp and the newly promoted Le Mans.
Favorites for promotion, battle for survival: we present to you what might be the most competitive edition in the history of L2!
🚀 Promotion: ASSE, Reims, Montpellier... and the others?
AS Saint-Étienne, Stade de Reims, Montpellier. The trio relegated from last season's Ligue 1 clearly stands out... and is favored for a comeback.
The Greens and the Rémois aim for nothing less than direct promotion. Both teams have so far retained some of their key players from last season (Irvin Cardona, Lucas Stassin, Zuriko Davitashvili for ASSE; Junya Ito, Keito Nakamura, Sergio Akieme at Reims) and thus seem clearly above the other sixteen teams in the league.
On the Montpellier side, Zoumana Camara's typical eleven is 90% different from last season's traumatic L1 lineup. Julien Laporte (Lorient), Alexandre Mendy (Caen), Nathanaël Mbuku (Augsburg) have strengthened the club, which will also give more playing time and responsibilities to some of its homegrown young players this season, such as Khalil Fayad, Junior Ndiaye, and Lucas Mincarelli.
Behind them, other historic clubs, who played in the top flight a few years ago, hope to shake up the established order and return to L1! Guingamp, Clermont, Bastia, or Troyes could be lurking, as well as Grenoble or Amiens. What about Dunkerque, too? A revelation last season by finishing just off the podium in fourth position, USDL can try again to get on the right track.
↘️ Survival: too tough for the newcomers?
Key clubs of L1 in the 2000s, Le Mans and AS Nancy Lorraine will return to L2 this season after several years spent in National.
They will be joined by Boulogne, rescued just a few days ago after the administrative relegation of AC Ajaccio was confirmed.
The three newcomers of this 2025-26 edition will fight for survival against seasoned Ligue 2 teams, as in the last two seasons, only Dunkerque and Red Star have managed to stay up as newcomers.
But beware of surprises! Last year, Caen, although predicted as a favorite for promotion at the start of the season, finished in last place; while Clermont, relegated from L1 in 2023-2024, secured their survival in the playoffs...
In Ligue 2, hierarchies can easily be overturned...
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.
📸 FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI - AFP or licensors
Category: General Sports
