What about if to the player is assigned an identity? Which most of the times happens. Local club traditions are borrowed by the player from an early age, but is that truly his identity? I am fortunate enough to have had the privilege of engaging several Romanian football players on this subject and I can assure you that they are not forthcoming on this topic. They are already trained to be somebody else and they are obliged to stick to it.

What I have been able to glean, mostly by way of observing their reactions to interviews and several training sessions, is that the Romanian football players do not often, nor do they appear to care to believe in themselves. They lack confidence and leadership skills, letting others to take decisions for them and not managing to develop their own identity. Managers and officials not caring about personal development of a player is a common issue, and this does not appear to work so well for the performances in club competitions, neither international ones for football in Romania.

I would hypothesise based on this information, and from information gathered from other sources, that the club officials do not share the same ideas as the players. Do they make the right decisions for the players they have in order to help them develop themselves? Or they take the decisions in a way that advantages “everybody”? Thus, it might be possible that the individual can’t develop himself as a unique character. All pure speculation, of course — but the time does pass, and the results are yet to come. One must say something!

Here is a small part from Peter Schmeichel first autobiography, on Romanian football players. In regards to a game from 1989.

The Romanians were unbelievably aggressive and put us under pressure all the way through the game. We were unable to find a way to counteract their style and succumbed to a 3–1 defeat. We faced eleven Romanians about whom Soren Lerby later remarked: “They certainly hadn’t drunk buttermilk before the game!”.

Words belonging to the goalkeeper of the team that was going to win the European Championship 3 years after that game. That is an identity.