Ukrainian football player ready to represent Russia in international matches
Ukrainian midfielder Artur Murza, who joined the Russian second-league football team Murom in March, admitted that he has dual citizenship and dreams of playing for the Russian national team, according to an interview with the Russian sports news outlet Sport24 published on May 14.
"I have not violated anything and I have not renounced my Ukrainian citizenship. They have no right to deprive me of my citizenship. Only if they do it according to some new rules, there is nothing I can do about it," he said.
"Today, I am a full-fledged citizen of the Russian Federation. That's the priority now, and I don't use my Ukrainian passport here. The most important thing is that my Russian passport is not taken away from me (laughs)."
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Asked what Russian citizenship means to him, Murza replied, "It means a lot. First of all, it is an opportunity to join the Russian national team in the future. I first started working on the issue of Russian citizenship before I moved to Austria. But I wrote my application for football citizenship this winter, even before I knew whether I would leave Austria."
Previously, Murza played for Ukrainian football clubs Mariupol, Volyn, Avanhard, Hirnyk-Sport, and Obolon.
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In early 2022, he joined Metalist Kharkiv, but after the full-scale Russian invasion, he moved to Kazakhstan, where he played for local football clubs Kyzylzhar and Aksu, and later for Latvia's Valmiera and Austria's Kapfenberg.
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