Adrian Mutu (born 8 January 1979) is a Romanian footballer who plays as a striker for Italian Serie A club Fiorentina, and the Romanian national team. Mutu began his professional career with his home club Argeş Piteşti. He made his debut on 15 March 1997 against Oţelul Galaţi and went on to score 11 goals in 41 games before sealing a transfer to Dinamo Bucureşti.His strong performances for Dinamo Bucureşti meant that Mutu did not spend long playing in the Romanian capital. He scored 22 goals in 33 games in total and played an important role in Dinamo's league and Romanian Cup success. However by the time that Dinamo lifted these trophies, Mutu had already left to play for Internazionale.Having joined Inter midway through the season, Mutu made an immediate impact on his debut for the Italian side, in the Coppa Italia scoring within nine minutes of his appearance against derby rivals AC Milan to help Inter to a 3–2 victory. However, Mutu failed to replicate his form in Serie A, playing only ten games for the Nerazzurri without scoring, partially due to 3+2 non-EU quota.In 2000, Mutu was sold to Verona in co-ownership deal. The Veneto side has also signed Mauro Camoranesi (later team-mate at Juventus) and young rising star Alberto Gilardino (later team-mate at Fiorentina) that season but almost relegated after winning the relegation tie-breaker playoffs. In June 2001, Verona bought Mutu outright, in although the quota system was abolished during the season.In the 2002–03 season, Mutu was loaned to Parma with the option to purchase him outright., followed Gilardino who arrived in June. At Parma, he met coach Cesare Prandelli (also at La Viola) and partnered Adriano Leite Ribeiro to form a deadly striking duo. He also met Sébastien Frey, Marco Marchionni and Alberto Gilardino who all later played for Fiorentina. In August 2003, Chelsea paid Parma €22.5m (around £15.8m) for Mutu's transfer as part of new owner Roman Abramovich's spending spree, He started with four goals in three matches, including two in a 4–2 victory over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, but Mutu scored fewer goals as the season progressed. 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 World Cup qualifying match against the Czech Republic. In September 2004, he failed a drugs test for cocaine and was sacked on 29 October 2004. He also received a 7 month ban and a £20,000 fine from the Football Association. The ban ended on 18 May 2005.ADRIAN MUTU BEST GOALS PT.1
Chelsea started to seek compensation from Mutu in early 2005. The Football Association Premier League Appeals Committee decided that the player had committed a breach of his contract without just cause which made Chelsea eligible to claim the compensation. Mutu started his first appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but the case was dismissed. 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) should award an amount of compensation in favour of the club following the established breach of the Employment Contract committed by the Player without just cause. However, on 26 October, the DRC decided that it did not have jurisdiction to make a decision in the dispute between the Club and the Player and that the claim by the Club was therefore not admissible. 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 upheld 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,"[Mutu may be banned from football by FIFA if he does not pay the compensation,[14] although some lawyers have disputed this. 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. It was reported that Mutu will appeal to the European Court of Justice.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. He made his first appearance on 29 May 2005, coming on as a substitute in the 57th minute of the last match of the season which was a 4–2 win over Cagliari. During the 2005–06 season, he scored seven goals in his 20 league match and 12 substitute appearances for Juventus. In the UEFA Champions League he made three starts and five substitute appearances and scored against Rapid Wien.
On 8 July 2006, Fiorentina announced that they had signed Mutu for €8 million from relegated Juventus which both clubs involved in the 2006 Italian football scandal. This reunited Mutu with his former manager at Parma, Cesare Prandelli. Mutu formed a productive partnership with then Fiorentina striker Luca Toni (now at Juventus)—the pair scored 32 goals in the 2006–07 season. He was named the best player of the season by “Il Calcio”, due to his 16 goals and eight assists in 33 games. In July 2008, A.S. Roma made a reported €18 to 20 million offer to sign him outright, But Mutu hinted that he may remain in Florence and eventually signed a new contact reported last to 2012. On 30 November 2008, at his 200th match in Serie A, Mutu was chosen to captain Fiorentina in the game against Roma. On 2 February 2009, he scored his 100th and 101st Serie A goals against Bologna. On 15 February 2009, Mutu scored his first hat-trick with Fiorentina. After going 3–0 down against Genoa, Mutu converted a penalty, a free kick, and scored again in the final second of extra time, bringing the final score to 3–3. Despite a difficult elbow injury, Mutu managed to finish the 2008–2009 season with 14 goals, along with Gilardino they were one of the top ten single season striker partnerships in Viola history with 33 goals between them. 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. 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. After such events, Mutu publicly apologised to the club and parted company with his agent Victor Becali; on 3 February 2011 Fiorentina announced the player was reinstated into the first team with immediate effect. As of 2009, Mutu has played for Romania 69 times, scoring 31 goals, 20 of which have come in qualifying games. Romania has only lost once when Mutu has scored for them, which was in a 2004 European qualifying game against Denmark. He was the vice-captain of Romania. His performances (games, goals) with the Romanian national team earned him the Romanian Footballer of the Year award. Since 2009, Romania's national team coach Răzvan Lucescu has reservations about calling him up, because Mutu was exposed consuming alcohol after a match with Serbia in World Cup 2010 Qualifications. 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. Since his failed drugs test in 2004, Mutu has been excluded from FIFPro and his name is therefore not licensed for use in the series of FIFA games. He can be accessed under the name Andrei Murgu.
