The second "Matija Šarkić" memorial tournament will be organized on April 3rd and 4th in memory of the untimely passing of the Montenegrin goalkeeper.
The matches will be played at the FSCG Training Camp grounds in Podgorica, where 146 boys aged up to 14, from five countries and eight teams, will gather.
The teams will be divided into two groups - Group A will consist of the Montenegrin national team, Belgian Antwerp, and Aston Villa and Tottenham.
Group B will feature Inter, Wolverhampton, Partizan and the Slovenian national team.
All teams will have three games per day, in a format of two 20-minute halves, 11 on 11, with "flying" substitutions.
Bojan Šarkić, Matija's father, said that they managed to achieve everything they wanted.
He thanked the Football Association, as well as the people who directly participated in the organization.
"We had good support in organizing the tournament, many companies and people wanted to contribute to organizing a sporting event that will bring together children from five countries, aged between 12 and 14, when they are really at the beginning of their football careers," said Šarkić at a press conference.
The tournament will be organized every year.
"The tournament is planned to become traditional, to be a festival of sports and youth. Only in this way can we turn the event, which shook the family above all, into something completely different, into a festival that will be bathed in the smiles of children. So, nothing can compensate for a tragedy like children can," Šarkić pointed out.
Grassroots manager of FSCG Nikola Prentić said that the tournament is a good opportunity for young football players from Montenegro to test their skills on the field, but also to meet and socialize with rivals from Europe.
"When we look at the participants on paper, I think it is an honor and privilege for our sport to have the opportunity to host all these teams and their representatives. I am sure that we will send a beautiful picture from Podgorica and Montenegro and that it will be a good invitation for next year. With good organization, we send a beautiful picture, not only in terms of football, but also to complete the sports story that is spiced up by the placement of our cadets in the European and World Championships," said Prentić.
Football Association spokesman Branko Latinović said that the trophy that will be presented to the winner is a fairly faithful replica of the last gloves that Matija wore, in the match against Belgium.
"He gave them to the son of one of our fans after the match. After the tragic event, they were returned to the Football Association, so that they would have a lasting memory of Matija. We came up with the idea of the trophy looking like that because we wanted to create a connection between Matija, the national team and the tournament, everything he loved. The trophy symbolizes Matija in the best way, but also what he loved most," said Latinović.
He announced that a fan zone will be organized in the area between the two fields, within the framework of the Training Camp, where boys and girls will be able to have fun through tekball, a skills arena and some game fields and test their technical abilities with the ball, or rather in football.
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