Romania’s captain Buterez about the simple pleasures of life and… of the national team

Rodica Buterez is only 27 years old, but she is already one of the most experienced players on the Romanian national team. Heading to Baku for CEV EuroVolley 2026 next week, she is about to compete at her fourth European Championship. The 1.90m-tall outside hitter has already played in 17 EuroVolley matches, the highest number for a Romanian player this century. Maybe one of the reasons for this longevity is that she really enjoys her time with the national team and is happy to reunite with her Romanian teammates year after year.

“The best thing about being with the national team is seeing the girls again,” Buterez said. “We are together all the time. We spend our free time together. You have not seen your friends for 10 months and then suddenly everybody is there again. It is really nice. When we are not working in training, it almost feels like a holiday. We go out, we go to the swimming pool, to the cinema, we play rummy, cards…, basically anything we can.

“The atmosphere is very positive, but also very competitive. We are a fighting team and our training sessions are quite intense. At the same time, I really like the relationship among the players. I feel that we understand each other well both on and off the court, and that is something I really appreciate.”

For Buterez, however, all this hard work combined with lots of fun time comes with an additional responsibility, as she is the captain of the national team. And she takes this responsibility very seriously, regardless of the level of the competition.

“I don’t think captaining the team at a European Championship means more pressure,” she said. “For me, being at a major tournament does not really change anything in that respect. If we can call it pressure, I think it is the same every time you step onto the court. Whether it is a European Championship match or any other match, the responsibility is still there.”

With 45 points to her name, Rodica Buterez was the best scorer of Romania’s EuroVolley qualification pool, from which the squad emerged runners-up to book a ticket to the Finals. Romania will play at a European Championship for the 28th time, and EuroVolley 2026 will be the team’s fourth in a row, just like for their captain herself. Currently number 27 in the FIVB World Ranking and number 15 in the CEV European Ranking however, they are still far from the glory days in the 20th century, when they claimed their only medal, a 1963 bronze, when they earned a 1956 World Championship silver, or when they qualified for two Olympic Games in 1964 and 1980.

While the team’s goals are humbler now, Buterez does not rule out qualifying for next year’s FIVB Volleyball World Cup (as the FIVB World Championship will be dubbed in the future) from EuroVolley, which would mean a top-three podium finish.

“I see it as an opportunity, not as additional pressure,” she said. “It depends on how you choose to look at it, and I personally prefer to see it as an opportunity, because Romania have not been at the World Championships for many years. Since I have been part of the national team, I have never experienced a World Championship, and I would really like to do so.

“But first of all, our main goal is to get past the pool. After that, a lot will depend on the results in the other pools, how the standings develop and what the match-ups look like in the knockout stage. So, for now, the first objective is to qualify from the pool. Then we can start thinking about what more we can achieve.”

In Baku, Romania will share EuroVolley Pool C with hosts Azerbaijan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

In her professional club career, Rodica Buterez has so far played for Romania’s Medicina Targu Mures, CSM Targoviste and Voluntari 2005, and for Germany’s SC Potsdam. Since last year, she has been competing in one of the world’s best national leagues, Poland’s TAURON Liga, as a member of PGE Budowlani Lodz. In her first season, she and her teammates triumphed as national champions, in addition to winning the Poland Cup, probably the highest achievement of her club career, along with reaching the 2023 CEV Cup semifinals with Targoviste.

“It was stressful at times and it required a lot from me and from us as a team, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that I feel like a different player,” Buterez commented on her experience in Poland. “Of course, there were probably some improvements, because it was a very demanding season, but I do not necessarily notice a major change in myself. If there has been one, I hope it was for the better.”

For volleyball fans in Romania, Rodica Buterez is closely associated with the “magical” number three she wears on her national team jersey. As she explains, the choice was anything but random.

“It is derived from the numbers in the birthdays of everyone in my family,” she pointed out. “I was born on the 25th and five minus two is three. My father was born on the 14th and four minus one is three. My sister was born on September 6 and nine minus six is three, and my mother was born on February 6 and six divided by two is three. It brings us all together. I was the mathematician!”

Just like the way she enjoys the simple pleasures of the time spent with her Romanian teammates, Rodica enjoys the simple pleasures of everyday life outside volleyball.

“I like shopping and spending money on cosmetics. I like shopping malls, although during the weekends they can be too crowded sometimes. So, if I have the time, I prefer going during the week. I also really enjoy going out and trying new and good restaurants – nothing too extraordinary,” said Buterez and reminisced about her first purchase with money she earned from volleyball. “I bought myself a pair of sneakers. It was nothing extravagant, but for me it felt amazing that I could buy them with my own money. They actually lasted quite a long time, even though I wore them a lot…”