A Lithuanian-born NBA basketball player, Ignas Brazdeikis, has submitted documents to the presidential office, moving a step closer to acquiring the country’s citizenship.
Brazdeikis now plays for the New York Knicks at the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is considered a talented player, who would make a strong addition to the Lithuanian men's national basketball team.
"A decision on his citizenship is likely to be made as early as this year," Antanas Bubnelis, spokesman for President Gitanas Nausėda, told BNS.
The Lithuanian Basketball Federation announced in late January that Brazdeikis, who was born in Lithuania, would seek Lithuanian citizenship which can be granted by a presidential decree.
In Lithuania, the president has the power of granting citizenship for special merits to the state or to people without citizenship who have successfully integrated into the Lithuanian society.
Brazdeikis, 21, was born in Lithuania's second-largest city of Kaunas but later emigrated to the United States with his parents, before acquiring Canadian citizenship.
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