Moldavian football

A short introduction to Moldavian football, it's major clubs and players by Evghenni Draganov , football agent and journalist

HISTORY

This article is dedicated to little-known facts about Moldavian football. Not every FIFA agent from Europe or another part of the world knows about our reality. I will try to tell you the truth about the football in this country. After reading this story you can create your own opinion.

Moldova is the one of the poorest country in Europe and as usual all the problems, such as economical and political, are reflected on football.

After independence in 1991 in the Republic of Moldova football only started to develop namely from the very beginning. Clubs started to improve their infrastructure but conditions as before left something to be desired. Moldavian players found ways to go abroad and some of them who went had a real success. For example striker Serghei Clescenco won the championship in Israel with Hapoel Tel-Aviv. He scored for Hapoel against Chelsea and AC Milan and helped his team to qualify for the quarter-finals of UEFA Cup in the season of 2001 - 2002. Clescenco was one of the best foreign players in Israel where he scored 22 goals in his first season for Maccabi Haifa. 
Another big name in Moldavian football is the  head coach of the national team, Alexandru Curteian. The former attacking midfielder played a short time for Hamburg and after that he won Russian Cup with Zenit Sankt-Petersburg. Curtian could have been a big star but he stopped his career after an incident where he was beaten by some robbers near his house in St-Petersburg.
 

BEST CLUBS

Sheriff Tiraspol

There are 11 teams playing in the highest league (Diviziona Nationala) of Moldova. Sheriff has so far been the most successful club. Three times they reached the group stage of UEFA Europa League but never made to the knockout stage.

The "Wasps" are the most professional club in Moldova and it owns one of the best accommodations in Eastern Europe. The club has 9 training fields, two big stadiums, a hotel with restaurant,a  swimming pool and tennis courts.

Sheriff not only buys but also sells their players to Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Belgium, UAE and others.

Many agents offer new players to Sheriff. The wide offer allows club to choose the best ones. The scouting department works quite productive. Razvan Cocis for instance was bought for 700.000 euro from U Cluj and sold after three seasons for 2,6 million euro to Lokomotive Moscow. This summer Sheriff sold for big money their Brazilian midfielder Henrique Luvannor to Al Shabbab. Luvannor joined Sheriff in 2011 from the small Brazillian club Morrinhos. During his stay with Sherrif he progressed a lot and received a Moldavian passport. Currently he plays for the national team. Sheriff's players regularly receive offers from the big teams from Russia or Western Europe. Responsible for these successes is the chief of the scouting department Valerii Pavlichenko who has connections all around the world. In order to propose players to Sheriff it is essential to provide written authorization of the players. Transnistria is a small region and alcohol abuse and late night partying by players will not go unnoticed by the officials of Moldovia's best club. 

At this moment the best player of the team is midfielder/striker Ricardo Calvacante Mendes (Ricardinho) who also is on the  radar of  a lot of big clubs.

Zimbru Chisinau

This year another club from Moldova, Zimbru Chisinau, was close to reach the group stage of the Europa League for the first time, but it lost against PAOK Salonika in the play-off round. Zimbru won in the first leg at home 1-0 and then it lost in Greece 0-4. This club has the biggest history in Moldova. In the Soviet time Zimbru was called Nistru and it played some seasons in the first division. Before Sheriff appeared Zimbru was the strongest team in the republic. 8 times they won the championship title. Those days the squad of the national team was formed around players of Zimbru. In the course of time some things changed. The clubs owner lost lost his interest in football and with that the money got tight. Nevertheless Zimbru has good infrastructure. The club has stadium with a capacity of 10,000, a hotel, a restaurant and two training fields. Zimbru has the best supporters although among of them are some groups of ultras. Zimbru is based in Chisinau the capital of Moldovia. Every winter Zimbru goes on 2-3 week trainings camp in Turkey. The club always tries to reach for participation in an EUFA competition. The best player could be considered winger Alexandru Dedov, who is important asset of the national team of Moldova.

Dacia Chisinau

Dacia is the biggest rival of Zimbru. Dacia won the Moldavian championship in 2011. The team has a lot of foreign players but like the majority of the clubs it doesn’t have a good striker who can score a lot of goals. At the same time, Dacia has a lot of young talented players. Dacia’s stadium is situated at a distance of 33 km from Chisinau and has very good pitch. Players live at a accommodation of the club and go every day to the training by bus. The most value player of this team is Milos Krkotic who is a member of national team of Montenegro. At the beginning of 2014 he had offers from Russia and Switzerland but he remained in Dacia.

FC Tiraspol

FC Tiraspol is another team situated in Transnistria. Last season this team realized the biggest success in the history and finished championship with the second place. Tiraspol trains and plays their matches at the same base with Sheriff. It means that they also have very good accomodation. The tam has a stable financial situation and it doesn’t have salary delays. Head coach of FC Tiraspol Vlad Goian prefers an attacking tactic with fast players, especially the wingers and right and left fullbacks. Discipline is at the first place at this team. Fails are penalized with fine. Bulgarian goalkeeper Giorgi Georgiev is the most important player of FC Tiraspol.

Milsami Orhei

Milsami is a new team in Moldova. This club was founded in 2010 and it previously was known as FC Viitorul. From 2010 till now Milsami won the Cup and Supercup of Moldovia. Ilan Shor the president of the club is one the countries wealthiest persons. Head coach of the team is Iurie Osipenco – a very serious and ambitious person. Milsami has hired players from different countries like Romania, Marocco, Nigeria and Croatia. This season Milsami aims to win the title. The first step to achieve this goal was the purchase of the former striker of national team of Romania, Romeo Surdu. For now he is the top-scorer in Moldova. 30-years old Surdu is the biggest star and the captain of Milsami. From year to year club has increased their budget and has been able to attract higher quality players. Milsami plays their home matches at the stadium of Orhei (40 km from the capital of Moldova). Players and coaches live permanently in one of the hotels of Chisinau.

Veris Chisinau

Veris is a team that promoted the last years from the third division to the first divison (Diviziona Nationala) of Moldovia. In the first season in firstl division Veris took the third place in the championship. Unlike clubs as Sheriff, Zimbru, FC Tiraspol and Milsami, Veris doesn’t own a stadium to play home matches. The club loans different stadiums for this purpose. However Veris trains at the a good field near Chisinau. The president of the club Vladimir Niculaita wants to build a stadium. Veris has the possibility to give apartments to the players. In future this club has the potential to have a good infrastructure. The best player of Veris Chisinau is 27-years old right back Petru Racu. He is the captain of Veris and played Before in Sweden, Finland, Norway. Since 2010 he is a member of national team of Moldova.

SALARIES OF THE PLAYERS

It’s not so difficult to bring players in Moldova but there are some specific requirements. Sometimes clubs can’t pay the flight ticket and usually coaches ask for a trial. Before a player is invited for a trial coaches will check out video footage of the player. No club offers contracts without seeing the player at work at the field. Salaries are not so big they range from 2.000 to 20.000 dollars per month. Champion Sheriff Tiraspol can pay the highest salaries. The commissions that clubs pay commission on the quality of the player.

Reverse it’s very easy to transfer players from this region. Of course there are not so much quality players, but some of them can play in big teams of Europe. Moldavian clubs are not so rich and are ready to sell their players.

THE BEST MOLDAVIAN PLAYER

Without any doubts, the best Moldavian player at this moment is Artur Ionita. He started his way in Zimbru from where he was transferred to Iska Ribnita. This small Moldavian club resold him to the Swiss club FC Aarau, where played for 5 seasons and developped himself further as a player. This summer he signed contract with Italian Serie A club, Hellas Verona. The 24-years old midfielder is an important player of Verona. Last September he scored 2 goals in his first Serie A season. His good results at the field can attract the attention of agents to Moldova. 

COLLABORATION

Moldavian clubs are not controlled by any agents but of course you can hear that somebody 'works exclusively'. All the teams are ready for collaboration with serious agents. Moldovia can be a good starting point for the players. For example, FC Moskow bought Alexandru Epureanu from Sheriff Tiraspol, Alexandru Suvorov transferred from Sheriff to MKS Cracovia and Igor Armas moved from Zimbru to Hammarby IF. Playing in Moldoavia's first division will offer a player a platform to showcase himself to bigger teams elsewhere.