Atte Tolvanen © GEPA pictures/ Gintare Karpaviciute

Tolvanen & Co: Salzburg receives naturalizations

Austria’s national ice hockey team is getting the long-awaited reinforcement in the goalkeeper position.

19 December 2024

From: apa

The Finn Atte Tolvanen, goalkeeper of champions Red Bull Salzburg, will be granted citizenship. This was decided by the Council of Ministers last week by circular resolution. Other naturalizations include national team speed skater Anna Molnar and Olympic refugee athlete Saman Soltani, who comes from Iran.

Tolvanen has been playing for Salzburg since autumn 2021 and has been one of the best goalkeepers in the league ever since. The 30-year-old has won the championship title three times in a row with the Red Bulls and was voted the most valuable player (MVP) of the play-offs in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. Since he has been playing continuously for a domestic club for more than two years, he is immediately eligible to play for the Austrian national team, which is thinly staffed in the goalkeeper position.

Molnar, who previously competed for Romania, has been running for Austria's association for years, also taking part in World Cups, European Championships and Junior World Championships. Now the 23-year-old could also be selected for the Olympic Games. The 28-year-old Soltani, who comes from Iran, has already competed in the Olympics; the athlete competed in this year's Paris Games as a flatwater canoeist in the refugee team. Her naturalization follows that of Aker Schmid. The wrestler, known as Iraqi Aker Al Obaidi, was part of the 2021 refugee team at the Tokyo Games before he received citizenship.