Adrian Mutu

Mutu began his professional career with Argeș Pitești and Dinamo București.[5]

In 2000, Mutu was sold by Inter to Verona in co-ownership deal,[6] for 7,500 million lire (€3,873,427).[7] The Veneto side also signed Massimo Oddo, Mauro Camoranesi (later a teammate at Juventus), and young rising star Alberto Gilardino (later a teammate at Fiorentina) that season. As Verona faced fellow strugglers Bari on matchday 18 in February 2001, Mutu came off the bench with Verona down a man and trailing 0–1 and scored two goals, inspiring Verona to a 3–2 victory.[8] The club narrowly avoided relegation through winning the relegation tie-breaker playoffs. In June 2001, Verona bought Mutu outright, for 5,100 million lire. (€2,633,930)[7][9][10]

On 12 August 2003, Chelsea paid Parma €22.5m (around £15.8m) for Mutu's transfer as part of new owner Roman Abramovich's spending spree, on a five-year contract.[11][12][13] He made his debut 11 days later, and scored the winning goal from distance in a 2–1 home victory against Leicester City,[14] and with two in a 4–2 win at Stamford Bridge against Tottenham Hotspur on 13 September, he totalled four goals in his opening three games.[15]

In the 2004–05 season, Mutu had a difficult relationship with the club's new manager José Mourinho, with each accusing the other of lying about whether the player was injured for a 2006 World Cup qualifying match against the Czech Republic.[16] In September 2004, Mutu was banned from football for 7 months until May 2005 after testing positive for cocaine use.[17]

Chelsea started to seek compensation from Mutu in early 2005.[13][18] The Football Association Premier League Appeals Committee decided that the player had committed a breach of his contract without just cause[13] which made Chelsea eligible to claim the compensation.[19] Mutu started his first appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in April 2005 but the case was dismissed in December 2005.[13] On 11 May 2006, Chelsea applied to FIFA for an award of compensation against Mutu. In particular, the club requested that the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) award compensation to the club following Mutu's breaching the employment contract without just cause.[13] However, on 26 October, the DRC decided that it did not have jurisdiction to make a decision in the dispute and that the claim by the club was therefore not admissible.[13] On 22 December, Chelsea lodged a new appeal before the CAS seeking the annulment of the DRC's decision. On 21 May 2007, a CAS panel allowed the club's appeal, set aside the DRC's decision, and referred the matter back to the DRC, "which does have jurisdiction to determine and impose the appropriate sporting sanction and/or order for compensation, if any, arising out of the dispute" between the Club and the Player,"[13]

On 7 May 2008, the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber ordered Mutu to pay €17,173,990 in compensation to his former club, Chelsea FC, for breach of contract.[20][21] This included €16,500,000 for the unamortised portion of the transfer fee paid to Parma, €307,340 for the unamortised portion of the sign-on fee (received by Mutu), and €366,650 for the unamortised portion of the fee to the Agent, but was not to take into account the determination of the damages for the amounts already paid by the club to the player (consideration for services rendered) or the remaining value of the employment contract (valued at €10,858,500). Mutu had to pay within 30 days after being informed of the decision in August 2008.[13] Mutu lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport for the second time,[22] but on 31 July 2009, that court dismissed his appeal,[20] and Mutu was ordered to pay Chelsea the amount plus interest of 5% p.a. starting on 12 September 2008 until the effective date of payment; the matter was submitted to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee for its determination. In addition, Mutu had to pay the costs of arbitration for both parties, including CHF 50,000 to Chelsea.[13] The fine was the highest ever levied by FIFA.[23]

Mutu could have been banned from football by FIFA if he did not pay the fine[24] although some lawyers disputed this.[25] Mutu started his third appeal, this time to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, in October 2009, but on 14 June 2010 this appeal was also dismissed with Mutu again being ordered to pay Chelsea €17m in damages.[26][27] In 2013, FIFA DRC decided in a new ruling that Livorno and Juventus were also jointly liable to pay compensation; both clubs immediately appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[28] On 21 January 2015 the Court of Arbitration for Sport annulled the FIFA DRC ruling; Mutu remained the sole party to pay the compensation.[29]

In 2018, European Court of Human Rights rejected Mutu's appeal against CAS 2015 ruling.[30]

Mutu signed a five-year contract with the Italian club Juventus on 12 January 2005, despite still being banned from football until 18 May. As Juventus had no available room to buy another non-EU player from abroad, the move also involved fellow Serie A club Livorno, who signed the player and contemporaneously sold him to Juventus.[31][32]

Mutu with Fiorentina during their 2007–08 season.

On 8 July 2006, Fiorentina announced that they had signed Mutu for €8 million.[33]

In July 2008, A.S. Roma made a reported €18 to 20 million offer to sign him outright,[34][35] but Mutu hinted that he may remain in Florence[36] and eventually signed a new contract reported last to 2012.[37]

On 29 January 2010, it was reported that Mutu failed a doping test after a Coppa Italia match against Lazio match nine days earlier, in which he scored twice in to help Fiorentina win 3–2. The INOC was requested to hand Mutu a one-year ban by the Italian anti-doping prosecutor.[38] He eventually received a nine-month ban on 19 April, which was later reduced to six months and ended on 29 October. After the ban finished, Mutu was suspended by the club due to breach of contract (AWOL) on 7 January 2011.[39] After such events, Mutu publicly apologised to the club and parted company with his agent Victor Becali;[40][41] on 3 February 2011 Fiorentina announced the player was reinstated into the first team with immediate effect.[42]

On 23 June 2011, it was officially announced that Cesena had signed Mutu on a two-year contract.[43] On 15 January, Mutu scored two goals versus Novara and took his tally to 101 goals in Serie A. After a couple of unconvincing games, on 11 April, Mutu scored a goal against Genoa, to eventually earn a draw for Cesena.[44]

In the summer of 2012, after Cesena relegated from Serie A, the two parties ended the contract by mutual consent.[45]

After his release from Cesena, Mutu signed a new contract with AC Ajaccio of the French Ligue 1 on 28 August 2012. He said that he favoured the Italian culture on Corsica, dismissed claims that he was preparing for retirement, and stated that he would score more goals than Zlatan Ibrahimović of Paris Saint-Germain. Club president Alain Orsoni said that Mutu was the highest-profile player to come to Corsica since Johnny Rep joined SC Bastia in 1978.[46]

After his previous season's goal haul was enough to keep Ajaccio in Ligue 1, Mutu's second season saw him play just 9 games and not score, before terminating his contract on 14 January 2014 alongside compatriot Ștefan Popescu.[47]

Later that day he was presented at Petrolul Ploiești in front of 10,000 fans. He was signed by his former international teammate, Cosmin Contra.[48] In the summer of 2014, Mutu scored both home and away against Viktoria Plzeň in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, a double which Petrolul impressively won 5–2 on aggregate.[49]

On 26 September 2014, Petrolul announced that the club had ended the contract between the two parties.[50]

On 30 July 2015, Mutu signed as the marquee player for Indian Super League club FC Pune City.[51]

In January 2016, Mutu returned to Romania with ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș, having been assured by national manager Anghel Iordănescu that he could have a place in the UEFA Euro 2016 squad if he played in a better league than India's.[52]

He played in three of four matches at the 2000 UEFA Euro, where Romania reached the quarterfinals for the first time. [53]

Mutu scored Romania's only goal of Euro 2008 in the 55th minute of their second match against Italy, however in the same match he had a second-half penalty saved by Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, which could have sent Italy out of the competition and would have guaranteed Romania a spot in the quarter finals. The game finished 1–1.[54]

Since 2009, Romania's national team coach Răzvan Lucescu has had reservations about calling him up, because Mutu was revealed to be consuming alcohol after a match with Serbia in World Cup 2010 Qualifications. Because of poor results and fan pressure, Răzvan Lucescu was forced to call him up again.[55] Mutu scored a brace in his first game back, a 3–1 win over Luxembourg on 29 March 2011, Romania's first win of the qualifiers.[56] He also scored once in the next game, a 3–0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on 3 June 2011.[57]

On 11 August 2011, Mutu and his teammate Gabriel Tamaş were excluded[58] from the Romanian national team after they were found drinking at a bar on the night of 10 August, while their teammates were playing in a friendly match against San Marino.[58] However, after only three games, their suspension was lifted. On 21 November 2013, Mutu was barred from playing on the national team after he posted an image of manager Victor Piţurcă as Mr. Bean on Facebook.[59]

[70][71]

Notes

As of 28 March 2017[72]

Scores and results list Romania's goal tally first. Score column indicates score after each Mutu goal.[73]

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	26 April 2000	Stadionul Farul, Constanța, Romania	Cyprus	1–0	2–0	Friendly
2	17 April 2002	Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak Stadium, Bydgoszcz, Poland	Poland	2–0	2–1
3	29 March 2003	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Denmark	1–0	2–5	UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
4	7 June 2003	Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–0	2–0
5	20 August 2003	Shakhtar Stadium, Donetsk, Ukraine	Ukraine	1–0	2–0	Friendly
6				2–0
7	6 September 2003	Astra Stadium, Ploiești, Romania	Luxembourg	1–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 2004 qualification
8	10 September 2003	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	1–1	2–2
9	11 October 2003	Stadionul Dinamo, Bucharest, Romania	Japan	1–0	1–1	Friendly
10	18 February 2004	GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	Georgia	1–0	3–0
11				2–0
12	18 August 2004	Stadionul Giulești, Bucharest, Romania	Finland	1–0	2–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
13	4 September 2004	Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, Craiova, Romania	North Macedonia	2–1	2–1
14	17 August 2005	Stadionul Farul, Constanța, Romania	Andorra	1–0	2–0
15				2–0
16	3 September 2005	Stadionul Farul, Constanța, Romania	Czech Republic	1–0	2–0
17				2–0
18	8 October 2005	Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland	Finland	1–0	1–0
19	16 August 2006	Stadionul Farul, Constanța, Romania	Cyprus	2–0	2–0	Friendly
20	6 September 2006	Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania	Albania	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2008 qualification
21	7 October 2006	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Belarus	1–0	3–1
22	7 February 2007	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Moldova	2–0	2–0	Friendly
23	28 March 2007	Stadionul Ceahlăul, Piatra Neamț, Romania	Luxembourg	1–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2008 qualification
24	6 June 2007	Stadionul Dan Păltinișanu, Timișoara, Romania	Slovenia	1–0	2–0
25	22 August 2007	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Turkey	2–0	2–0	Friendly
26	8 September 2007	Dinamo Stadium, Minsk, Belarus	Belarus	1–0	3–1	UEFA Euro 2008 qualification
27				3–1
28	31 May 2008	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Montenegro	1–0	4–0	Friendly
29	13 June 2008	Letzigrund, Zürich, Switzerland	Italy	1–0	1–1	UEFA Euro 2008
30	29 March 2011	Stadionul Ceahlăul, Piatra Neamț, Romania	Luxembourg	1–1	3–1	UEFA Euro 2012 qualification
31				2–1
32	3 June 2011	Stadionul Giulești, Bucharest, Romania	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–0	3–0
33	7 October 2011	Stadionul Național, Bucharest, Romania	Belarus	1–0	2–2
34				2–1
35	22 March 2013	Ferenc Puskás Stadium, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	1–1	2–2	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

As of 30 October 2022[74]

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Voluntari	15 April 2018	14 June 2018	11	3	3	5	11	14	−3	027.27
Romania U21	14 January 2020	16 April 2021	7	3	3	1	10	5	+5	042.86
FC U Craiova	29 May 2021	5 October 2021	12	3	3	6	9	13	−4	025.00
Rapid București	2 March 2022	Present	28	19	3	6	49	19	+30	067.86
Total			58	28	12	18	79	51	+28	048.28