Wall Street Journal writes about Romanian football punter playing for a US team
The success of local sports people and film makers abroad seems to be Romania's main international counterbalance for the bad news coming from the country. The Wall Street Journal has recently published an article about a Romanian playing in the US National Football League, Zoltan Mesko. Mesko, 24, who has studied in the US, is now playing for the New England Patriots. He and his parents went to US in the 90s, when they won the American Green Card Lottery.
“The wonderfully named Zoltan Mesko speaks five languages and grew up dreaming of being an aerospace engineer before graduating from Michigan with a business degree and a master's in sports management,” writes the Wall Street Journal.
“Mr. Mesko was born and raised in Timişoara, Romania, right on the Hungarian border. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, life improved dramatically for most people living behind the Iron Curtain—but not much for Romanians. Mr. Mesko spent Christmas Eve, 1989, ducking on the floor of his parents' apartment in Romania to avoid getting hit by cross-fire during the revolution. His parents, Mihai and Elizabeta, both engineers, couldn't leave the country until they won America's Green Card lottery in 1997, when he was 10,” according to the US publication.
“On July 16, Mr. Mesko signed with the Patriots for the minimum wage. In the NFL, that's not $7.25 an hour, but $325,000 a year—and the team tacked on a bonus of $187,250,” WSJ writes.
“He might be among the poorest players in the NFL but is probably the richest kid from Timişoara, Romania,” the author of the article concludes.
(photo source: David Walter Banks for The Wall Street Journal)
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