Romania may not have the stars above their crest to match it, but they are undoubtedly one of European football’s great powerhouses in terms of the gifts the Tricolorii have given the game.
From The Carpathian Maradona, Gheorghe Hagi, to one of the greatest managers in football history in Mircea Lucescu, Romania have been generous donors over the years with 12 players in total nominated for the Ballon d’Or.
Yet one of those golden dozen, former Chelsea, Juventus and Fiorentina star Adrian Mutu, stands out as one of the more unique personalities and talents that we have seen since the turn of the century.
Blessed with technical ability on the pitch, cursed with personal issues off it, Mutu’s erratic career was one of whiplash inducing changes of direction against the backdrop of a truly talented striker, almost constantly clouded by controversy.
From failed drugs tests and being banned from international duty to reports of sucking the blood from a porn star – here Mail Sport details the incredible yet troubled career of one of Romania’s greatest and most controversial players.
Adrian Mutu played for Chelsea for just one season in a spell that saw a bust-up with Jose Mourinho and a seven-month ban for a positive drugs test
No Romanian has scored more goals for their country, with Mutu tied on 35 with legendary icon Gheorghe Hagi
The ex-striker’s career was plagued with controversies off the field that punctuated his progress on it
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How many footballers, athletes, sporting superstars have we seen fall afoul of their own potential down the years? It’s a tale as old as time, and yet there is so much that is utterly unique about the sensational and at times bizarre journey of Adrian Mutu.
Quick, technically-gifted and a talented dribbler, Mutu first arrived in Europe’s major leagues with Inter Milan, joining as a 20-year-old in January 2000, before finding himself at Parma three years later, via a year at Hellas Verona.
But it wasn’t just rival teams whose heads were turning, as Mutu tied the knot with his first wife – he would marry three times in total – Romanian TV presenter Alexandra Dinu.
At Parma, though, Mutu’s promising talent began to turn into an impressive ability in front of goal emboldened by a confidence in his supreme technical skills, that was more than worth the €10million (roughly £16m adjusting for inflation) they paid.
He scored 22 goals in 36 games in 2002-03 before, once again, he was on the move, his iridescent rise bringing him to the Premier League, where Roman Abramovich and his cheque book had just taken over Chelsea.
‘I once said Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is like a shark and Carlton Cole like a lion,’ said then Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri after splashing £15.8m on the Romanian. ‘Well, Adrian Mutu is another born predator. In fact, Mutu is like a snake.
‘Mutu is so clever, so cunning and stays hidden until it is necessary to apply the killer finish. He can ghost in from behind the main striker and, when he does, the goalkeeper will be a dead man. This is why I have dreamed of signing Mutu for such a very long time.
‘Immediately Mr Abramovich asked me to draw up a list of the players I wanted, I put Mutu right at the top. The first name. He is a champion, a strong character – and I demand champions and strong characters in this side.’
Mutu married his first wife Alexandra Dinu (left) in 2001 and the couple would have one child before their divorce in 2004
The Romanian striker erupted onto the radar of Chelsea after a stunning season at Parma in Serie A
Mutu was the first name on Claudio Ranieri’s shopping list after Roman Abramovich took charge of the club
His arrival however came under an acrimonious cloud; Mutu was facing allegations of beating his wife Dinu. While these claims would later be dropped, and a divorce finalised in October, it was not quite the start Blues fans will have been anticipating for a player so highly-billed by Ranieri.
That all changed after they saw him play, though. In the annals of great debut goals, Mutu has a case for the finest ever.
The then-24-year-old stood over a free-kick about 30 yards out with the scores at 1-1 against Leicester. Naturally a player with the confidence of Mutu thought it was a perfect opportunity to have a dig at goal, but sent his effort crashing into the wall.
Without second-guessing himself for even a second – or actually looking at the goal – he thundered the rebound into the bottom corner, first time on the half volley to open his Blues account in staggering style.
He bagged another three goals in the next two games, leaving Chelsea rubbing their hands with glee at what was to come from their new hero, an absolute steal at £16m.
By the end of 2003, Mutu had even achieved the acclaim of being nominated for the Ballon d’Or – football’s greatest individual award – earning the same number of votes as legends Ronaldinho, Filippo Inzahgjhi, Jan Koller and Franceso Toldo. Was this a hint at the status that was to come to Mutu if he could continue on this trajectory?
Unfortunately, it was not to last. In fact, he would only score two more goals in the league that season in the following 22 games, quickly turning from Premier League sensation, to disappointing Chelsea flop – and the arrival of Jose Mourinho in summer 2004 would spark the end of his career in west London.
Before the new boss could even get started, Mutu’s off-field life was beginning to derail his quickly souring reputation in west London. In May 2004, reports emerged that he was secretly filmed by a Romanian tabloid in an encounter with an adult film star, Laura Andresan.
A 24-year-old Mutu opened his account for Chelsea in staggering fashion against Leicester in August 2003
However the goals began to dry up and he ended the season with just six from 25 in the Premier League
Now, in isolation, it isn’t exactly the sort of tale that is a million miles away from being believable for footballers in the early 2000s; what does mark this as a remarkable encounter is the fact that Mutu allegedly sucked some of Andresan’s blood.
A season that began with a wondergoal and ended with claims that he sucked the blood of a porn star – there aren’t too many players for whom you could say the same.
Unbelievably, things would get worse for Mutu. The arrival of The Special One in 2004 proved to be the end of the road for the now-25-year-old at Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho had reportedly caught wind of Mutu’s party-boy lifestyle – not that they were hard to miss – and more or less made his mind up. As anyone who has followed football in the last 20 years will tell you, once the Portuguese icon makes a decision there’s little that can change it.
Despite Abramovich’s insistence that Mutu was not for sale, the player was relegated to the depths of the bench after a reported bust-up in pre-season over suspicions that the player was using cocaine. The striker is not thought to have minced his words in refuting the suggestion, branding Mourinho a liar, which did not exactly go down well.
‘When I met him on his first day in the pre-season in July and he was with his two agents Mr [Victor] Becali and Gica Popescu I told all three “I have information that you are on cocaine”,’ Mourinho said.
‘For a long period we saw now and again strange behaviour. Arriving late a few times, not coming in to train other times. A doctor visiting his house and the apparent reason was just headaches. Injured when nobody knows how it happened – for example he was on the bench and did not play against Paris [Saint-Germain] yet the next day he was injured.
‘We began to question and the club doctor, because he has some experience that we do not have, was analysing with different eyes and he arrived at the decision that maybe yes. I would never sign him again. Not just because of the drug, but because he called me a liar.’
According to reports, Mutu was caught with adult star Laura Andresan – whose blood he is thought to have sucked
The arrival of Jose Mourinho (right) at Chelsea spelled the end of his career in the Premier League
After picking up a three-month driving ban following a high-speed police chase in Bucharest, things somehow continued to nosedive. He reported for Romania duty in October, against Chelsea’s wishes, having sat out the last three Blues games with an injury, and was duly fined a reported £120,000 by his boss.
‘I am in an open conflict with Mourinho, who forbade me to go to my national team and said I was injured,’ Mutu declared in 2004, throwing an entire petrol station’s worth of gasoline onto an already raging fire. ‘It is not true – I have been in good condition for five days and he knew that.
‘I don’t care about being fined. I want everyone to know that the national team is the most important thing for me. I told Mourinho I was fit. He disagreed and showed me a piece of paper from the medical staff claiming I wasn’t. But I know I am fit.
‘Mourinho has promised me that I would play in the first team for some games. Then I wasn’t even in the squad and I don’t understand why. Probably the only solution, even if I don’t want it, is to find another team.’
In retrospect, he needn’t have bothered so publicly calling out one of the great grudge-holders of our generation. Later in October he would fail a drugs test, which came back positive for cocaine, and he was duly sacked by Chelsea and banned by the FA for seven months.
But after that weighty slap on the wrist, Mutu somehow managed to raise further eyebrows, with a very interesting justification that almost kept with the player’s story: ‘The only reason I took what I took was because I wanted to improve my sexual performance.
‘It may be funny but it’s true. I did not take cocaine. I took something to make me feel good.’
The end of the line at Chelsea brought new beginnings. His former club began the hunt for a then-record £15.2m in compensation, but Mutu found a route back into football with Juventus, although he was unable to make his debut until the final game of the 2004-05 season.
He would also marry his second wife, Consuelo Matos Gomez, a Dominican model with whom he would spend the next decade of his life. The couple would welcome two children into the world; daughters Adriana (2006) and Maya Vega (2008).
Mutu was sacked by Chelsea after a positive test for cocaine, and the club then demanded he paid £15.2m in compensation
The player admitted he was in ‘open conflict’ with Mourinho after reporting for international duty with Romania (Pictured in 2011 with disciplinarian Victor Piturca)
In 2005, he would marry his second wife, Consuelo Matos Gomez, a Dominican model with whom he has two children (Pictured in 2011)
He returned to Serie A with Juventus after picking up a seven-month ban, only making his Serie A debut on the final day of the season
Back in Serie A, Mutu began to get his career back on track, posting encouraging numbers on his return to Italy, first with Juventus, before joining Fiorentina who would ultimately get the best out of the wayward maverick that Mutu had become.
That being said, he did pick up a second drugs ban of his career, testing positive for an appetite-repressor Sibutramine in 2010 and spending six months out of the game. A little more than a week before his return, reports also emerged of a bar fight with a waiter over a bill in the early hours of the morning.
After 69 goals and 27 assists for La Viola in 143 appearances and five seasons, Mutu joined Ajaccio after one last year in Italy in 2012. Though Chelsea were yet to receive their compensation, Mutu’s headline-grabbing lifestyle was threatening to become a thing of the past.
There were still flashes of the enigmatic mind the world had become used to, notably telling a certain PSG star Zlatan Ibrahimovic he would outscore him in Ligue 1 when signing for Ajaccio. The Swede ended the season on 30 goals with a league title in his hands, Mutu on 11, two points above relegation with the Corsican side.
He also picked up two separate bans from representing Romania in 2011 and 2013. The former came after he was caught drinking on the night of his side’s clash with San Marino – which resulted in a life-time ban that lasted only three games – and the latter was a result of a post on Facebook likening his manager to Mr. Bean.
It’s quite a bold claim given the hectic lifestyle he lived, but perhaps the most bizarre turn of all came in 2014, when the former Chelsea flop appeared in a Snoop Dogg music video. Naturally.
Yet the tell-tale stints that pockmark the end of most players’ careers began the swansong of Mutu’s days out on the field. Moves to Romania, the Indian Super League and back home again yielded 10 goals in two-and-a-half years and in 2016, a 37-year-old Mutu at last hung up his well-travelled but not entirely fulfilled boots.
‘Maybe if I had made other decisions in the past, I could even have won the Ballon d’Or at some point. I’d rather not think about that too much, though,’ Mutu famously said in 2011, and his retirement proved to be the final nail in the coffin of a truly promising career.
At Fiorentina the striker enjoyed perhaps the most fruitful spell of his career with 69 goals in 143 appeareances
Mutu was twice banned from representing Romania – once in 2011 and again in 2013
The latter ban was for posting a photo on Facebook likening his Romania manager to Mr Bean
Despite playing 47 fewer games and twice being banned from representing Romania, Mutu ended his career with as many goals for Romania as their greatest ever player in Gheorghe Hagi (35).
Following his divorce from Gomez in 2015, he was married to former Miss Romania Sandra Bachici in 2016, their son Tiago Adrian being born in 2017, and eyeing up a return to the game as a coach.
It might seem odd for a player that seemed to spend as much time on the front pages as the back, but Mutu believes that’s just why he is well-placed to help the next generation.
‘I know what happens when a player has problems with indiscipline. I’ve passed through hard moments and I came back stronger,’ he said in 2020.
‘If one of my players happens to make a mistake I will tell them to learn from it and not to repeat it. I came back and I played better than before, proving to everyone that the young players who have made a mistake must be helped, not judged and destroyed.’
In the dugout, Mutu has had spells with the Romanian Under-23s, in the United Arab Emirates and in Azerbaijan, and although none have quite gone to plan, he has previously made clear his ambition to take the big job at his former national team.
He tied Romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi’s national team scoring record in 47 fewer games
In 2016 Mutu married for the third time, tying the knot with Sandra Bachici, with whom he welcomed son Tiago Adrian to the world in 2017
Behind the brash bad-boy image and the clouds of questions that plagued him throughout his career, there is a clearly bright mind. Mutu has a law degree, loves poetry, and knows his Raskolnikovs from his Karamazovs, being a keen fan of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In his own words, he is the game’s ‘ultimate split personality’.
Although his compensation is still yet to be paid to Chelsea, and he has never quite shrugged off his acrimonious Chelsea departure, retirement seems to have dampened the trademark fire and unpredictability, replaced by an introspective nostalgia for his youth and the mistakes made along the way.
‘In my first year at Chelsea I worked with Claudio Ranieri, a great coach, who wanted me in the squad. Without those personal problems, things would have been different,’ Mutu told BBC Sport.
If ever a quote summed up one player’s career, it is that.