New Caledonia Women

Debora Selefen has kept goal for New Caledonia's women, and it was the 2023 Pacific Games squad she marshalled that came home from Honiara with bronze, beating Samoa 3–1 in the third-place match after a semi-final defeat to Fiji. The federation, the Fédération Calédonienne de Football, had already seen the team go further twice before that, taking silver at the 2011 and 2015 Pacific Games.

That history opens in Nouméa on 28 November 1983, when the team played its first official international and beat Fiji 2–0 at the OFC Women's Championship, finishing third in the tournament.

Wider recognition beyond the Pacific Games has been harder to come by: fourth place at the 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup, a quarter-final exit in 2022, and no appearance yet at a FIFA Women's World Cup or an Olympic tournament. Johann Sidaner and Pierre Wajoka shared the coaching duties for the 2023 campaign, with Claire Kaemo marshalling the defence in front of Selefen and Clémence Friocourt leading the line.

The side carries the nickname Les Cagous, borrowed from the men's team and named for the flightless bird found only in New Caledonia, and plays its matches at the Stade Numa-Daly Magenta in Nouméa. It was there, on that same ground, that the story began in 1983.