Top PMR footballer changes his Moldova citizenship for Russian

Tiraspol-born Serghei Covalciuc, left, plays for FC Spartak Moscow and is now a Russian. He got his start in Tiligul-Tiras

MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times) - Tiraspol's own football legend Serghei Covalciuc says bye-bye to his Moldovan citizenship: As of today, he is now a Russian.

The 25 year old football (soccer) utility midfielder, who plays for FC Spartak Moscow, is a PMR citizen. But due to Pridnestrovie's current status as an unrecognized country, his PMR citizenship and passport is not recognized outside the country's borders. In order to travel abroad, Covalciuc additionally opted for a Moldovan citizenship.

Moldova, eager to reinforce its territorial claim over the non-Moldovan side of the Dniester, readily issues citizenships to anyone in Pridnestrovie or, as Chisinau prefers to call it, Transnistria / Stînga Nistrului. So far, according to the 2004 census, only 107,600 people have accepted the Moldovan passports; less than 20% of Pridnestrovie's total population of 555,347.

Serghei Covalciuc was born 20 January 1982. He currently plays for Spartak Moscow in the Russian Premier League. Previously he played for Tiligul Tiraspol, one of the top three football teams in Tiraspol, the capital of the new and emerging country which declared independence in 1990 and whose full, official name is the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica.

He joined Tiligul-Tiras in the 1999 pre-season. From there he got spotted by a talent scout and signed to Karpaty Lvov, and then moved to Spartak.

Covalciuc now renounced his Moldovan passport in order to receive Russian citizenship and be able to play more often for Spartak.

Top club in Russia

FC Spartak Moscow is one of Russia's leading clubs. Spartak won 12 Soviet championships (second only to Dynamo Kyiv) and 9 out of 14 Russian championships. They have also won the Soviet Cup 9 times and the Russian Cup 3 times. In addition, Spartak reached the semi-finals of all three European club competitions.

Serghei Covalciuc, well known in Tiraspol and former PMR star footballer, is now a Russian citizen

The team is usually called "red-and-whites", but among the fans "The Meat" is a very popular nickname: For many years the team was under patronage of one of the Moscow food factories which dealt with meat products. Both fans and players often yell "Who are we? We're The Meat!"
Another nickname is "Svin'i" ("Pigs", in Russian), although, unsurprisingly, this is considered offensive by the team's fans.

Serghei Covalciuc is not the only "ex-Moldovan" (on paper) to dump the Moldovan passport in favor of a better option. Romania's president says that 800,000 Moldovans have already filled out the forms for Romanian citizenship. By the end of the year, he estimated that 1.5m Moldovans will have applied, equivalent to nearly half the country.

To make matters worse, a quarter of Moldova's work force live abroad. Most of them will never return. Low wage labor is today Moldova's #1 export. The government and the country could not survive without the money they send back: A third of Moldova's hard currency earnings are from "gastarbeiter" remittances, making it one of the most dependent countries in the world.

In Pridnestrovie (Transdniester) the equivalent figure is estimated at 4%. Most of Pridnestrovie's hard currency earnings come from exports of industrial products and manufacture, rather than wages sent home from PMR citizens working abroad.

Russian football has experienced significant revenue growth thanks to sponsorship from foreign companies and domestic oil producers. The improvement in revenues has allowed Russian teams to enter the expensive transfer market. Recently, Spartak has bought a number of well-known players, with Midfielder Serghei Covalciuc, Spartak's #27.

See also:
» Lokomotiv signs FC Sheriff player for €2.6m
» FC Sheriff Tiraspol player on contract with Denmark

On the web:
» 2004 Census: PMR urban, multilingual, multicultural