Moldova national football team

Moldova

Nickname(s)	Tricolorii (The Tricolours)
Association	Moldovan Football Federation (FMF)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Serghei Cleșcenco
Captain	Vadim Rață
Most caps	Alexandru Epureanu (100)
Top scorer	Ion Nicolaescu (15)
Home stadium	Zimbru Stadium
FIFA code	MDA
First colours Second colours Third colours
FIFA ranking
Current	152 1 (20 June 2024)[1]
Highest	37 (April 2008)
Lowest	181 (October 2021)
First international
Unofficial  Moldova 2–4 Georgia  (Chișinău, SSR Moldova, Soviet Union; 2 July 1991) Official  United States 1–1 Moldova  (Jacksonville, United States; 16 April 1994)
Biggest win
Pakistan 0–5 Moldova  (Amman, Jordan; 18 August 1992)
Biggest defeat
Denmark 8–0 Moldova  (Herning, Denmark; 28 March 2021)
Website	fmf.md Preview warning: Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "https://fmf.md/home/natio..." (in Romanian)

The Moldova national football team (Romanian: Echipa națională de fotbal a Moldovei) represents Moldova in men's international football and is controlled by the Moldovan Football Federation, the governing body for football in Moldova. Moldova's home ground is Zimbru Stadium in Chișinău and their head coach is Serghei Cleșcenco. Shortly before the break-up of the Soviet Union, they played their first match against the Georgia on 2 July 1991.

Two of their three best results in the 2020s came during the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2024, with a win over Poland (3–2) in Chișinău, coming back from a 0–2 deficit, and a draw against Czech Republic (0–0) in Chișinău. In 2007, Moldova upset Hungary 3–0 in Chișinău in Euro 2008 qualifying. Another notable result was a 5–2 win over Montenegro during 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying. The team has never qualified for the final stages of the UEFA European Championship nor the FIFA World Cup since first entering qualifying in 1994.

Following Moldova's 4–0 defeat to England in September 1997, British writer and comedian Tony Hawks travelled to Moldova to challenge and beat all 11 Moldovan international footballers at tennis. The feature film version of the book of the same name, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, was filmed in and around Chișinău in May and June 2010 and was released in the spring of 2012.