Romanians think Nadia Comaneci and Gheorghe Hagi are the best local athletes of all times

Football is the most loved and viewed sport in Romania, followed by gymnastics and tennis, according to a survey published by research firm Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES). Former gymnast Nadia Comaneci and footballer Gheorghe Hagi are seen as the best Romanian athletes of all time, while tennis player Simona Halep is fourth in this ranking, close to former tennis player Ilie Nastase, the same survey shows. Even is Romania’s national football team did not qualify to the World Cup in Brazil, almost 60 percent of Romanians say they will watch the competition on TV. A quarter of the survey participants think that Brazil will win the competition, with the other favorites being Spain, Germany and Argentina. Some 35 percent of Romanian say football is their favorite sport, 13 percent like gymnastics, 9 percent like tennis and 5 percent – handball. Among men, almost 60 percent say they like football. About 60 percent of those questioned in the survey say they watched Simona Halep’s matches at the Roland Garros this year, and 84 percent said that she would have deserved to win the French Open. About 1,100 people participated in this survey which has a maximum margin for error of +/- 3 percent. editor@romania-insider.com