ILIE Nastase for mayor of Bucharest! Sounds odd that the former bad guy of international "tennis is running for the title of first citizen of his home city. For Romania, which has had more than its fair share of poets and actors as national politicians, it is not such a strange contest.
For Nastase himself the issue is simple he wants to give back something to his country.
"Listen," he says in his heavily accented English. "I lived my life. ,I had a great life in tennis. I did everything I want. I had a good time. . . .lots of girls. . . . whatever you want. Maybe it is a middle aged crisis when you want to come home. That's what I feel. I have kids I have family, I have money. I don't know what else to do."
Seated on a high couch in his elegant two storey villa in Bucharest's embassy district, Nastase already looks tired. His manner is serious and he is soberly dressed in a brown velvet jacket, shirt and tie. His hair is still long and dark but his midriff shows his 49 years. For him, the contest for the four year long post is a crucial one. Should he lose, he says, his reputation would be ruined. No doubt his ego would be as well.
Nastase has always been popular in Romania - even when he was reviled by the international tennis community and dubbed "Nasty" for his outbursts of temperament during matches. But he admits that his feisty reputation on court is not enough to convince Bucharest's 2.5 million citizens to back him. Nevertheless he is confident of his chances of success - not least because he is running for the post as a member of the ruling Romanian Social Democratic Party (PDSR) which supports the former Communist president, Mr Ion Iliescu.
He says he decided to contest the mayoralty two months ago after he was approached by the PDSR leader, Mr Adrian Nastase (no relation), during a dinner party in Washington. He casually shrugs off criticism by the opposition press that it is inappropriate for him to be a candidate for a party with strong links to former communists.
"I say to them that all the parties right now are old communists," he says. "Whoever I went with would be a communist. So I tell them to shut up a little because they are all old communists to me. I am the only one not. Don't tell me in six years they are all changed."
Nastase also has an answer for those who question his lack of experience for the post. "I ask them who has experience as a mayor?" he says. "My point is that no one has experience like a mayor better than me. I think my duty is to be a good manager. To manage the money and to make sure it goes to the people who need it and not to anyone's pocket."
If elected, Nastase says he would secure donations from wealthy Romanian business people to mend the many physical defects in the run down city. High on the list of gripes for its citizenry are the heavily pot holed roads and pavements which the current snowy weather has turned into assault courses for daily commuters.
He also says he intends fixing the centrally controlled heating and water systems in Bucharest's tower blocks which have been faulty all through the winter months.
"I was born here and I can see how unhappy people are on the streets," he says. "I know all the streets of Bucharest from my childhood and I see now that even the trees on the street are sad if you look at them and that's very very hard for me to say.
"I want it to return at least to what it was like when I was a child, if not better." Above all, Nastase says he wants to return to Bucharest's gloomy citizens a sense of civic pride and responsibility, which was wiped out by 45 years of communism.
With homes in Bucharest, Paris and New York, Nastase has lived in Romania on a part time basis since the 1970s. He now spends" most of his time in New York with his second wife, Alexandra, and his two children, Charlotte (5) and Nicholas (8). His daughter from his first marriage, Natalie (21), is studying in Paris.
If appointed mayor, he says his family would move to Bucharest.
But for now, all he is concentrating on is the election. "I think about this all the time and even in my dreams and it's exactly like when I play a big match," he says.
"If I'm not accepted the way I am, I will regret it for the people because I'm trying to help. I don't see myself sacrificing four years of my life, I see it as giving four years of my life."