The international football tournament among boys born in 2015 in memory of Gennady Ivanovich Smertin, held from July 30 to August 3, ended in Barnaul.
Four game days, two fields, 16 teams from Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The trophy was taken away by the Central Academy of Dynamo named after Lev Ivanovich Yashin.
The winner of the Gennady Smertin memorial tournament was the Dynamo Moscow team, which beat peers from Kairat in the final – 2:2 in regular time and 3:1 in a penalty shootout. The silver awards went to Alma-Ata residents, who did not miss a single goal in the playoffs until the finals. Bronze was won by Dynamo from Makhachkala, which in the match for third place turned out to be stronger than Astana c in the penalty shootout – 3:2 after a 1-1 draw.
The tournament was dedicated to the memory of Gennady Ivanovich Smertin, a national coach from Barnaul, the father of football players Evgeny and Alexey. Having no special education, he brought up a whole galaxy of bright players, including Zenit midfielder and Russian national team Alexander Erokhin and Lokomotiv midfielder Artem Karpukas. The pupils called him "Uncle Gena."
– Every year, together with my brother, under the auspices of the Dynamo Academy, we hold this tournament in honor of a man for whom football was not just a game, but a real life, — says Gennady Ivanovich's son, Academy coach Yevgeny Smertin.
The competition started as a local one and has grown into an international one. Barnaul is connected with the blue and white through the Smertin brothers, and on October 3, 2021, one of the first regional branches of the Dynamo Academy opened here at the Dynamo stadium with the support of VTB Bank.
The organizers of the tournament were the Ministry of Sports of the Altai Territory, the Lev Yashin Dynamo Football Academy and the Altai Regional Football Federation.
The tournament is organized with the support of the Russian Sports Foundation, established in 2025 on behalf of the President of Russia for the development of physical culture and sports.
