The 14,000-seat stadium, built inside a super-technological sports complex costing 200 million euros, is called Sheriff. The company that built it bears the same name, Sheriff. And this is also the name of a supermarket chain, but also a telephone company, a 5-star hotel and even a TV. There is a Sheriff who roams around Europe. Among the paradoxes of European football in 2021, the year of the Super League's secession, there is a novelty that almost smacks of retaliation. The strongest team in Moldova is not Moldovan. In Madrid they discovered that Transnistria exists, and that they have a team that can win at the Bernabeu on a night of European football. In Milan, Inter, who already knew her, tamed her (in the end) without too many worries, waiting to play the second leg on November 3. But freshman Sheriff Tiraspol is not just a semi-unknown club baptizing depressed Moldovan football in the most competitive tournament in the world. It is also the team of a city that boasts a singular record: it is the capital of a small separatist republic, the pro-Russian Transnistria, in fact, squeezed between the eastern bank of the Dnestr river and Ukraine.

When the team was born, in 1993, they chose a name and a symbol from an American show from the 1980s. That rounded five-pointed star, more than a football club, is reminiscent of films by Bo and Luke or A-Team. To reconstruct this history that is surprising the Europe of football, it is necessary to venture into a labyrinth of gray areas, spies, business, civil wars and legends. Tiraspol is the capital of a small strip of land a little larger than the Val d'Aosta, called Transnistria, which in September 1990 declared its independence. In 2006, around 400,000 people voted in favor of immediate independence and future integration with Moscow. Except that the outcome of the consultation was not taken into consideration by the international community. The echoes of the past are still distinctly heard: Tiraspol's premier bookshop sells framed posters depicting local president Vadim Krasnoselsky along with Putin and Stalin. The Tiraspol team was founded by Ilya Kazmali and, above all, Victor Gusan, two former KGB agents: the perfume of the USSR seems to be spread almost everywhere in small Transnistria, because the flag is that of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova, hammer and sickle, gold-edged star and a horizontal green band in the middle of the red USSR.

And the coin? The Transnistrian rubles, which are certainly not worth as euros or dollars and for this reason the Sheriff's players prefer to be paid by the club in another currency. In the team there is a heterogeneous humanity: Brazilians, Slovenes, Slovaks, Malians, Bosnians, Greeks, Peruvians. A colony that has already conquered the Santiago Bernabeu and hit De Zerbi's Shakhtar Donets, but which has bowed to San Siro. The team, founded in 1997, has never reached the knockout stage of the Champions League, it has reached the group stage of the Europa League four times. But at home she was able to win 19 of the last 21 Moldovan championships.

A curiosity: among the coaches, there was also the Italian Roberto Bordin, who is today the coach of Moldova. The idol of the fans? The Luxembourgish Sebastien Thill, author of the winning goal in the 89th minute in Madrid against Benzema's Real who gave the leadership in the group to Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions League group (shared with Real). Inter, after the victory at San Siro, have collected four points in the Champions League so far. After having undeservedly lost at home to Ancelotti's Blancos last September 15, in Kiev the Nerazzurri against Shakhtar were unable to break from 0-0, a result identical to the two harvests in the last edition against the Ukrainians, with consequent elimination before the round of 16 . To move forward now, Simone Inzaghi's gang will have to overtake the sheriffs in their house. Hard to understand how strong the sheriffs really are. They sure are very lucky. On paper, however, a mission that is more than possible for Inter is announced, at least in light of the result at San Siro.

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