Fatai Responds To Claims He Will Play For Romania;Romanian FA Deny Striker

Ex-Flying Eagles star Kehinde Fatai and his intermediary have gone on a wild good chase regarding his “application” to Fifa to represent the Romanian National Team ahead of this summer’s European Championship in France.

The odds are stacked against Fatai, with Fifa informing the Romanian Federation in August 2014 that he is ineligible to play for Romania as he wasn’t a citizen of the country when he made his competitive debut for the Flying Eagles.

“I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to play for Romania. It is true Fifa ruled that I can’t play for Romania since I’ve played for Nigeria at U20 level and I wasn’t a citizen by then,” said Fatai to allnigeriasoccer.com.

“The Romanian FA has applied again to Fifa so we are waiting because the decision counts for the senior national team while I played only junior.”

Leading Romanian journalist Cristian Scutariu of Prosport says the probability of the Nigerian representing Romania internationally is low, adding that he’s unaware of the striker’s claims that the Federation has made another application to Fifa.

Scutariu told allnigeriasoccer.com : “Fatai is a Romanian citizen but it is highly unlikely he will play for the national team, extremely unlikely, and it is illogical before EURO 2016. Romania already has too many striker options and all the strikers are doing good.

“(Today) I spoke again with my sources from the Romanian Federation, there is no Fatai story for them.”

Now with Czech side Sparta Prague after spending close to eight years in Romania, Kehinde Fatai returned to Romania late last month to process his Romanian passport but did not respond when quizzed if he’s now in possession of the document.

The 26-year-old Kehinde Fatai is married to a Romanian woman.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : sparta..cz