The Malta Football Association is pleased to announce that Birkirkara FC defender Enrico Pepe has been awarded Maltese citizenship on sporting merit, making him eligible to play for the national team. Another professional player, 26-year-old midfielder Teddy Teuma who plays for Belgian club Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, has also been awarded Maltese citizenship based on his Maltese lineage.
Both Pepe, 30, and Teuma have been identified by the Malta FA’s coaching staff as players who can enhance the level of quality and level of the national team with Pepe having been part of the squad called up by Devis Mangia, the Head Coach of the National Team, for the Return to Activity training programme last month. Alex Muscat, the Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and the Communities, presented the certificate of citizenship to Pepe on Tuesday morning in the presence of Dr Clifton Grima, the Parliamentary Secretaty for Youth, Sport and Voluntary Organisations, and Bjorn Vassallo and Ivan Vella, President and Chief Officer (Administration) of the Malta FA respectively. While thanking the two Parliamentary Secretaries for their support, Vassallo reaffirmed his conviction that, based on the technical assessments done by the Association’s coaching staff, Pepe and Teuma will prove valuable additions to the national team. He added that the Malta FA’s Technical Centre is assessing other players of Maltese descent, emphasising that only players who have the right attributes to play and raise the level of the national team will be considered. Alex Muscat, Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and the Communities, stressed that, in the interest of the development and progress of sports in our country, Pepe and Teuma have the footballing potential to contribute to the national team and strengthen the pool of players. For his part, Dr Clifton Grima said that all this forms part of a process which, in a holistic manner, looks at the development of the game as well as the sporting and human qualities of the athlete which will benefit the Maltese society and that particular sporting discipline.