The national Under 18 football team of Moldova will take part in the international tournament in memory of Valentin Granatkin that will be held in Saint Petersburg on January 8–21. The team trained by Oleg Fistican will compete in Group D and is to play the first match on January 9, against the team of Slovenia, which won the competition last year, IPN reports.

On January 11 Moldova meets the team of Saint Petersburg and on January 13 it plays against Iran. The competition in the city on the Neva River involves 16 U-18 teams from 15 countries.

Since 2001, the tournament in memory of the FIFA vice president Valentin Granatkin has been won by Russia for nine times and by South Korea, Germany, Belarus, Finland, Italy, Japan, and Slovenia by one time.