To celebrate the arrival of the Euro 2008 championships, we look at each of the nations in turn and their connections, tenuous or otherwise, with Bristol Rovers.

The insular nature of Romanian football throughout the decades has meant that there are precious few connections between football in that country and any club in Britain.

Certainly no Romanians have played for or against Rovers in first-class competition and no Rovers player has gone on to represent any club in that country.

There are only two tenuous connections that I can muster, one being the career of Mark Burke. A midfielder, Burke played against Rovers on three occasions in the League, whilst wearing the colours of Wolverhampton Wanderers. In November 1992, Rovers crashed to a 5-1 defeat to Wolves at Molineux and he scored twice in that game. In the summer of 2001, Burke joined Rapid Bucharest, though details of his career in Romania have proved difficult to uncover.

The second opponent was Alex Nyarko, a Ghanaian whose spell at Everton coincided with the Worthington Cup-ties against Rovers in September 2000; Nyarko spent the 1994-95 season with Steaua Bucharest.

At least five Rovers players have played international football against Romania.

Recent England games included the 3-2 defeat to the Romanians at Charleroi in Euro 2000, with Nigel Martyn in goal. Terry Cooper also played the Romanians at Guadalajara in the 1970 World Cup Finals.

Vitalijs Astafjevs captained Latvia against Romania at Paphos in February 2000; James Quinn played for Northern Ireland against Romania in Chicago in May 2006; and Jeff Hopkins was in the Welsh side that recorded a 5-0 victory over Romania at Wrexham in October 1983.

Written by Stephen Byrne