San Marino Academy — commonly known simply as San Marino — was established in 2004 in the City of San Marino, the tiny landlocked republic entirely surrounded by Italy. The club is operated directly by the San Marino Football Federation and was created to fill a structural gap: San Marino has no domestic women's league and no women's national team, making this federation-run club the sole vehicle for elite women's football in the country.
The club entered the Italian football pyramid at the bottom of the regional ladder, starting in the Serie D (Emilia-Romagna) in the 2004–05 season. Their first major landmark came in 2007–08, when they won the Serie D with an outstanding record — 25 wins, two draws and just one defeat — and earned promotion to Serie C. Progress was not always linear; relegation and promotion cycles followed before a defining run under coach Mirco Balacich, who guided the club to a league-and-cup double in 2015–16, winning both Serie C and the Coppa Emilia and securing a first-ever promotion to Serie B.
The club was restructured as "San Marino Academy" in the summer of 2017 to formalise its youth and women's remit. The most celebrated chapter came under coach Alain Conte: winning Serie C Group C in 2018–19 and earning promotion to Serie B, before a third-place finish in the suspended 2019–20 season led to a corrected-ranking promotion to Serie A — the top tier of Italian women's football — for the first time in 2020–21.
In the current decade, men's youth football has also been formalised, with the club entering the Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio from 2023–24. San Marino Academy's identity is rooted in its unique mission: representing an entire nation within another country's football system.