“The biggest Moldovan success since Dragostea Din Tei”, people cheered on Twitter. With Sheriff Tiraspol, a Moldovan club has been able to qualify for the main tournament of the Champions League for the first time. In 5 points you will get acquainted with the “Wasps” from Moldova.
1. Dominant in your own country
Sheriff Tiraspol is completely unknown to the outside world, but in Moldova the club has been the football benchmark for two decades. The young club was founded in 1997, promoted to the top division a year later and dominated the football competition from 2000.
With the exception of two slips, in 2011 and 2014, it has won the Moldovan football championship every year since then, with ten titles in a row between 2000 and 2010. Last year it won the competition with a goal difference of 116-7 (!) and a lead of 16 points on first attacker Petroclub.
2. Moneylender Sheriff
The club’s success does not come out of the blue. After all, the club is owned by the Moldovan mega concern Sheriff, which owns gas stations and a supermarket chain. It also has a TV channel, a production company, a construction company, a liquor factory and a lot of shops.
Since its inception, Sheriff has pumped millions into the club, including the construction of the small but modern Sheriff Stadium. With the qualification for the Champions League, the unexpected highlight for the rich owners now follows.
3. Pride of Transnistria
In her own country, the success of Sheriff Tiraspol will probably be met with mixed feelings. Tiraspol is not only the second largest city in Moldova, it is also the capital of the de facto independent state of Transnistria, a maverick in the region.
In 1990, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the region unilaterally declared its independence from Moldova, the beginning of a long tug-of-war. Transnistria has never been recognized as an independent country by the international community.
Today, Transnistria still proudly carries with it its communist roots. It is the only former Soviet country that still has a hammer and sickle in its flag. The conflict with Moldova makes Sheriff a “wrong club” for many Moldovans.
4. Unknown team with Mechelen cult striker
Anyone who looked at the Sheriff’s line-up against Zagreb yesterday will probably hardly know a name on the magazine. The star of the team is Colombian Frank Castañeda. The winger scored 28 goals in the league last season.
Anyone who follows the Belgian league closely may recognize a name, that of Dimitrios Kolovos. The Greek striker played football for KV Mechelen from 2016 to 2018, but was never really able to break it.
Furthermore, the Moldovans have to make do with Malian international Adama Traoré (not Wolverhampton’s) and Luxembourg international Sébastien Thill. The Brazilian-Moldavian Luvannor was also important with 4 goals in the CL preliminary round.
Kolovos in the Mechelen colours.
5. The newbie trend in the CL continues
With the qualification of Sheriff, Moldova is credited as a country in the history books of the CL. The last new countries on the list were Kazakhstan in 2015 with FC Astana and Azerbaijan in 2017 with Qarabag.
In addition, Sheriff also continues the long-standing trend of new teams in championship ball. From 2017 to 2020, Qarabag, Leipzig, Hoffenheim, Red Star Belgrade (which previously won the European Cup 1), Young Boys Bern, Salzburg, Basaksehir, Krasnodar, Midtjylland and Rennes made their debut.
