Matt Maher: Moldovan Messi! Ivan’s chasing Whitchurch Alport Wembley dream

As a teenager, he won two league titles and pitted his wits against the likes of Portugal stars Renato Sanches and Ruben Dias.

Now, aged 24, he is three matches away from realising a dream of playing at Wembley, with non-league Whitchurch Alport.

Urvantev, a former Moldova under-21 international, is part of the Alport team who will tomorrow be aiming to reach the last eight of the FA Vase by beating Coventry Sphinx.

“Just one of those remarkable stories you quite often get in this sport,” says Luke Goddard, manager of the Midland League Premier club, when explaining how a midfielder who started his journey in one of Europe’s eastern outposts has wound up in one of Shropshire’s west.

The circumstances, when laid out, are relatively straightforward yet above all else Urvantev’s story is a reminder that no matter where you are from, the language of football is often universal.

Growing up in Singerei, a small city with a population of just 12,000 situated a couple of hours north of the Moldovan capital Chisinau, Urvantev was obsessed with the sport from a young age.

“I wanted to be Lionel Messi,” he laughs. It did not take long for his talent to be spotted and in his early teens he was recruited by the academy of the Moldovan League’s biggest club, Sheriff Tiraspol.

If that name rings a bell it is because last September they pulled off one of the biggest shocks in the history of European football by beating Real Madrid in the Bernabeu during the Champions League group stage.

Having battled his way through the ranks, Urvantev made his debut in 2016 at the age of 18, making 25 appearances as Sheriff (who have won 19 of the last 21 Moldovan titles) became champions in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.

By that time, he had already been capped several times as a youth international and it was while with the under-19s he came up against a Portugal team featuring the likes of Sanches, Dias and Diego Goncalves during the qualifying for the 2016 European Championships. Moldova lost the game 1-0 but the memory still burns bright. “It was an incredible experience,” he says.

The moment which would set Urvantev on the path to Whitchurch came in the summer of 2018. His sister Marina had moved to the town with her husband and was living close to the Yockings Park ground. When she gave birth to a daughter and her brother came to visit his new niece, he noticed the floodlights on one night over the way.

“I was here on holiday but I am a good professional and I wanted to continue training, to keep myself in shape,” he explains.

Alport were only too happy to help out, with Urvantev keeping the numbers of Goddard and his assistant Stephen Mays when he returned east.

That proved important last summer when he decided his career needed a change of direction. Sheriff’s desire to make a splash in European competition has increasingly seen them recruit from overseas and in particular South America. Urvantev, like many domestic players, saw his first-team opportunities dwindle and after a series of loan moved he made the permanent switch to Ripensia Timisoara, in the Romanian Second Division, two years ago.

When offered a job alongside his brother-in-law and the chance to move to the UK permanently last year, Goddard was one of his first ports of call.

“Originally, Ivan asked if we would be able to get him a trial at a professional club but the terms of his visa at that point made it tricky,” says Goddard.

“But invited him to have pre-season again with us and when the season started he played a few games. We got a bit of momentum and it has all gone on from there.”

A technically gifted player who prefers to operate as a No.10, Urvantev has been a key player in Alport’s historic run to the last-16 of the Vase.

“The football here is very different but I like it,” he says. “It is physical, definitely more physical than technical but I enjoy it.

“The fans are amazing. In Moldova football is popular but not like here. Here it is everywhere.”

“I think if he could, Ivan would play football every minute of every day,” adds Goddard. “He is a smashing lad, really down to earth.”

In the long-term Urvantev still has the desire to make it as a professional and Goddard and Mays have agreed to help him get a trial or two at clubs higher up the pyramid in the months ahead.

For now, all attentions are on the Vase and continuing a run which has been sprinkled with a little Moldovan magic. Alport, who had never previously been past the first round of the competition, are expected to take more than 200 supporters to Coventry.

“It’s been a terrific run so far and Ivan has more than played his part,” says Goddard. “Who knows? Maybe three months from now he might be scoring the winner at Wembley?”