Ahead of Romania’s friendly match with Spain on Sunday night, the Romanian players were spotted training with mathematical equations instead of squad numbers.
With an alarming school dropout rate of 18% (one of the highest in the EU) there is no doubt that something needed to be done to make learning more appealing, and the Romanian Football Federation have taken a bold step.
Changing the shirt numbers to equations will be just part of a program that will see an auxiliary mathematics manual made available in Autumn 2016.
The equations, which are on the training kits but won’t be on the shirts worn during the game, but will be linked to specific football-related mathematical problems. The connection to the sport – often seen in Romania as something that distracts from schoolwork – will hopefully appeal to youngsters, making it easier for them to develop their maths skills.
An example of one of the problems: “Florin Andone and Bogdan Stancu have scored 27 goals this season combined. Andone scored 9 goals more than Stancu. How many goals has Andone scored? And Stancu?”
“Football and mathematics are not mutually exclusive,” the president of the Romanian Football Federation president, Razvan Burleanu, explained.
“We must look at sports and education as not only complementary but fundamental elements integrated in the training and perfection of children. We want to have healthy generation and smart students who achieve performance and tools through tailored passions. Through this project, children will learn the basics of football and have an opportunity for the first time in our country – to discover mathematics through an attractive approach.”
Romania qualified for the Euros by finishing second in their group, one point behind winners Northern Ireland. This will be their first international tournament since Euro 2008, where they were drawn in the “Group of Death” with France, Italy and the Netherlands. Despite the gap in quality, Romania finished in 3rd, ahead of France.
This year they have been drawn with France again (as well as Albania and Switzerland) in Group A. Iordanescu will be hoping that the game against Spain helps his side learn how to elevate their level and perform against the international heavyweights, which will help them in the summer.
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