RRI Sport Club – How does the naturalization of foreign athletes help us?
In the last five years, 55 professional athletes have been naturalized in Romania.
Florin Orban, 11.03.2026, 13:45
Bonaparte stands with the Romanians. The sentence sounds like a 19th-century slogan, but it is relevant today. Damian Bonaparte is a member of the Romanian national rugby team, for which he scored a try in the match against Georgia on March 8. He was born in South Africa and has been playing in Romania for several years. He stood out at Dinamo Bucharest, after which he moved to Steaua, and coach David Gérard selected him for the national team. The Romanian team also includes other foreigners. Under certain conditions, in rugby you can play for a country’s national team even if you do not have the citizenship of that country.
International forums have provided this possibility to raise the level of play of representatives from outside the world classification. In other disciplines, especially those with a long Olympic tradition, the presence in the national team of a country other than the one of origin is subject to stricter rules. The skater of German origin Julia Sauter, although competing for Romania for years at the world and European championships, could not be present at the recent Milano – Cortina Games until after she had properly acquired Romanian citizenship. Another Iulia who is successfully evolving for Romania is the handball player born in Ukraine named Iulia Dumanska.
In the last five years, 55 athletes have been naturalized. According to the president of the National Agency for Sports, Bogdan Matei, this number is too high. The official told the Agerpres Agency, quote: “This naturalization comes as a proposal from the national sports federations and, of course, with a well-grounded argument behind it, namely, that the respective athlete can bring added value to the national team and nothing more. (…) From my point of view, this issue related to the naturalization of athletes does not represent a long-term solution, but it can bring punctual added value for certain national teams.” Unquote.
Constantin Din, the president of the Romanian Handball Federation, adds a nuance, quote: “We must, indeed, be very careful, and resort to naturalizations only if there is an obvious plus, both in terms of sports and human value. Because young athletes need role models. If we manage to find among the players from abroad some who meet these criteria, then I think we can confidently resort to this process,” Constantin Din told Agerpres.
The nuance evoked by Constantin Din makes all the difference. One of the roles of sport, perhaps the most important, is to help raise new solid, healthy and performing generations, and Romania is not doing well at all in this regard. However, if the play of foreign rugby players will make the kids return to the oval ball, if Julia Sauter’s pirouettes will bring children back onto the ice and if Dumanska’s parades will reignite the interest of young people in handball, the bet on naturalizations could be a winner. (LS)
