The Football Association will use all its capacities to ensure that the second memorial tournament dedicated to the untimely deceased Montenegrin goalkeeper runs smoothly, as befits the name of Matija Šarkić, said Secretary General Momir Đurđevac.
The tournament will be played on April 3rd and 4th, 2026, at the FSCG training camp grounds, and will bring together eight teams aged 14 and under.
Premier League teams Wolverhampton, Tottenham and Aston Villa, Belgian Antwerp, Inter Milan and Belgrade's Partizan, as well as the two national teams of Montenegro and Slovenia, will participate.
Montenegro will play in the group with Antwerp, Aston Villa and Tottenham, while in the second group their rivals will be Inter, Wolverhampton, Partizani and the Slovenian national team.
Đurđevac said that the organization of the tournament capitalizes on the Football Association's promises to repay Matija Šarkić in a worthy manner for everything he meant to the Montenegrin national team with his attitude and career.
According to him, Šarkić could have played anywhere and for anyone, but he chose Montenegro and tied his career to the national team jersey.
"The first tournament was played in Belgium, but it is natural that Montenegro and FSCG traditionally organize a tournament dedicated to Martija Šarkić. The tournament will be respectable, the list of participants is impressive, thanks to the clubs' enormous respect for Matija and the enthusiasm of his father. It will be the strongest tournament in Montenegro, perhaps the strongest in Europe, in the under-14 age group," said Đurđevac.
The father of the untimely deceased Montenegrin goalkeeper Bojan Šarkić thanked the Football Association for everything it did for Matija and his brother Oliver, who, as he stated, proudly wore the Montenegrin coat of arms and represented Montenegro from their earliest days.
According to him, the first memorial tournament was organized in Brussels, at the British College, which Šarkić attended.
"We organized that tournament quickly, because we only started gathering teams in January. We managed to have almost all the teams he played for in that first tournament - Birmingham, Millwall, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton," said Šarkić.
He pointed out that Antwerp's triumph in Brussels earned them an invitation to the upcoming tournament and they will have the honor of opening it with a duel with the Montenegrin national team.
Speaking about the gesture of Slovenian football players, who wore black jerseys at the European Championship match just a few days after Matija's death, he emphasized that he will remember that gesture as long as he lives and that it deserves great attention from Montenegro and the Šarkić family.
"The two-day football festival will bring together 146 boys from five countries and eight teams," said Šarkić.
Grassroots manager Nikola Prentić said that it is very important to follow the guidelines related to the grassroots story and strategy that FSCG began implementing last year.
"UEFA has changed its strategy, so we have also paid great attention to grassroots football, and at the same time, the age group up to 14 years old encompasses and represents that part of the story," said Prentić.
He emphasized that the organizers followed some UEFA guidelines that are generally used when it comes to development tournaments.
"It will be played according to a pattern, all teams will have three matches a day, and they will play twice for 20 minutes, 11 on 11, with flying substitutions," said Prentić.
Šarkić died suddenly on June 15th of last year.
He started playing defense at Anderlecht's academy as an eight-year-old, spent a whole decade at the academy of the biggest Belgian club, and then moved to Aston Villa, where, in addition to working in the youth ranks, he also encountered senior football for the first time.
Villa sent him on loan to Wigan, Stratford and Livingston in Scotland, where he stepped onto the biggest stage. He defended brilliantly, so Wolverhampton bought out his contract in 2020.
New loans followed - Shrewsbury, Birmingham, then Stoke, growing up in the strong Championship, and then moving to Millwall.
He defended the goal of the senior national team of Montenegro nine times, and he died only ten days after the best game in his favorite jersey, against Belgium in Brussels.
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