Alexia Ioana Căruțașu (; (born 10 June 2003) is a professional

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player who plays for

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

and the Turkey national team. Born in Romania, she previously played for the Romania national team.

Personal life

Her parents Andreea and Virgil Căruțașu were both Romanian basketball players. She speaks some Turkish, and in December 2021, she stated that she wished to obtain Turkish citizenship. Late September 2024, it was announced that after her application to obtain Turkish citizenship was officially approved, she was naturalized as a citizen of Turkey. She will become eligible to play in the Turkey national team as of January 2025.

Club career

She is the youngest debutant (13 years, four months) in the Divizia A1 history. She made her Romanian top-flight debut with

CSM București Clubul Sportiv Municipal București, commonly known as CSM București is a Romanian professional multi-sports club based in Bucharest. Departments Active branches: *Athletics *Basketball *Dancesport *Handball *Judo *Scrabble *Volleyball Defunct ...

in October 2016, coming on as a substitute against

CSM Volei Alba Blaj Clubul Sportiv Municipal Volei Alba Blaj, commonly known as CSM Volei Alba Blaj, is a professional women's volleyball club based in Blaj, Transylvania, Romania, that competed in the CEV Cup. History In 2018, Alba reached the CEV Champions L ...

Galatasaray

On 14 May 2021, she signed a contract with

on loan from VakıfBank Istanbul for one season. It was announced that she returned to the Galatasaray team on 13 May 2024. The signed contract is for two years.

International career

Romania

She competed at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship, where Romania ranked sixth. She also competed at the 2018 Girls' U17 Volleyball European Championship, where the Romanian team placed fifth.

Turkey

Following her naturalization, she was selected to the

Turkey women's national volleyball team The Turkey women's national volleyball team () is formed by the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF) and represents Turkey in international CEV and FIVB organizations. The team is the most successful national sports team in the country and h ...

, and debuted at the 2025 AIA AeQuilibrim Cup Women Elite held in Italy, which was a preparation tournament of the Turkey nationals for the upcoming 2025 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League. She scored the most points of the national team, which finished the cup as champion. She played her first official match for Turkey at the 2025 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League. In the fourth league match against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

on 8 June 2025, she scored 38 points, became so the top scorer of the game, and played a big role in the victory of the national team by 3-2, which remained unbeaten after four matches of the first league week in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, China.

Achievements

* Divizia A1: **''Winner'': 2018 *Cupa României: **''Winner'': 2018 *

CEV Challenge Cup The CEV Challenge Cup is the third tier official competition for men's volleyball clubs from the whole of Europe. The competition started in the 1980–81 season under the name CEV Cup. In 2007 it was renamed to CEV Challenge Cup. History * # ...

: **''Winner'': 2021 *

European Youth Olympic Festival The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fi ...

: **''Silver Medalist'':

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual awards

* Romanian Volleyball Player of the Year: 2021 *

Top Scorer (128 points): 2021Sistem9 Yesilyurt ISTANBUL triumph at #CEVChallengeCupW
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References

External links

*
CEV profileThe Next Big Thing in Volleyball
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carutasu, Alexia 2003 births Living people Volleyball players from Bucharest Naturalised volleyball players Naturalized citizens of Turkey Turkish people of Romanian descent Turkish women's volleyball players 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Romanian women's volleyball players Opposite hitters VakıfBank S.K. volleyballers Yeşilyurt volleyballers Galatasaray S.K. (women's volleyball) players 21st-century Romanian sportswomen Turkey women's international volleyball players