Karl Izzo is delighted that Ivan Nagaev has been given the green light to represent our country at next month’s European Championship finals and is confident that with the Russian-born player in their ranks, the national team can aspire for its best-ever result in the continental finals.

On Friday, the Aquatic Sport Association of Malta announced that Nagaev’s application to receive a Maltese passport with merit had been concluded successfully, and World Aquatics informed the governing body that the prolific goalscorer is eligible to switch allegiance from Russia to Maltese citizenship and can play in the Euro finals in Belgrade next month.

Nagaev is a familiar face in Maltese waterpolo as the 32-year-old has played for several clubs here, most notably Marsaxlokk and Valletta.

During his time here, he established himself as one of the most prolific scorers in the local championships and will no doubt boost the options of coach Milan Cirovic ahead of the team’s participation in Belgrade.

Nagaev becomes the third Russian player to have changed nationality in recent years, with Konstantin Kharkov receiving Croatian citizenship while Dmitri Kholod made his debut for Montenegro this year.

Izzo said that he is pleased that Nagaev’s application was finally accepted and concluded and has no doubt that his talent is a major boost for the Maltese national team.

“Ivan Nagaev is a player who knows our country very well, having played with Marsaxlokk and most recently Valletta for several years,” Izzo told the Times of Malta.

“Last year, Valletta had brought him for a whole year, and with them, he had started the process to acquire Maltese citizenship. But despite their efforts, his application’s process hit an impasse, and there were doubts about whether he could successfully receive a passport.

“In recent weeks, there were some changes in the composition of the board who are responsible for awarding Maltese passports. They got in touch with our association and informed us that they will help us with Nagaev’s application as they recognised that he would boost the national team’s level of competitivity.

“A few weeks passed and Nagaev’s application gathered steam and this week we were informed that he was going to be awarded a passport. On Friday, we also received the go-ahead from World Aquatics so that he can play for Malta at next month’s Euros.

“For us, he is a great acquisition as his a very talented player, who is Maltese at heart, having lived here for several years and is really attached to our country’s colours.”

Izzo said that the ASA has shown in recent years that it has always had a lot of faith in homegrown talent, and is mirrored by their huge investment in their youth set-up over the past few years.

However, Izzo said that when an opportunity arises to bring into the national team a player of the quality of Ivan Nagaev, the ASA could not ignore it.

“There could be some criticism, but the ASA is doing the same things that other countries have been doing for several years,” Izzo said.

“There are national teams who are far bigger than us, like France, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Montenegro and Georgia, who have naturalised players on more than one occasion in recent years.

“The last time our association awarded a passport was to Aurelien Cousin way back in 2017 after he got married to a Maltese girl. Personally, I had always insisted that if we had the opportunity to award a passport to players who would raise the technical level of our national team, we should go for it, and that is what we have done in the case of Nagaev.

“Ivan will not only make our team more competitive, but at the same time, he can inspire young players to work harder and help our national team target a higher placing in next month’s European Championship finals.

“That has to be our main goal now – to finish higher than 14th place, which is our best-ever result in a continental finals.”

Nagaev has already joined the men’s senior national team, which is preparing for its sixth successive participation in the European Championship finals.

Malta has been drawn in a tough group with Montenegro, Hungary, and France, and Izzo admitted it’s going to be a major challenge for the national team, but he has now given coach Milan Cirovic all the tools to achieve our best showing in the competition.

“Milan Cirovic is delighted to have Ivan Nagaev in his squad as he was pushing most to have him in his team,” Izzo said.

“Nagaev can play in more than one position, and with him in the team, we now have our strongest-ever national team. But now it’s up to Ivan Nagaev to show that he deserves to be part of the national team and deliver the results we are all aspiring for.”

Nagaev debut

Nagaev is expected to make his national team debut on Thursday, when Malta plays its first of three friendly matches against Portugal at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

The two national teams will meet against each other on two other occasions, on December 19 at the National Pool, and then they will head to Gozo to play for a third time at the newly inaugurated pool in Victoria.

After these matches, the national team will then head to Slovenia on January 5 for a four-day training camp during which they will play several friendlies against the Slovenian national team.