Adrian Mutu (Romanian pronunciation: (listen); born 8 January 1979) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is in charge of Liga I club Rapid București. During his playing career, he was deployed as a forward or an attacking midfielder.
Mutu started his career playing two years for Argeș Pitești and half a season for Dinamo București, before joining Inter Milan in Italy midway through the 1999–2000 Serie A. After only ten games with the Nerazzurri, he left for Hellas Verona and then Parma, for which he scored 39 goals in the next three years. His excellent form brought him a €22.5 million transfer to Chelsea and a nomination for the Ballon d'Or in 2003. Following a failed drug test, he was released and returned to Serie A to join Juventus. After the 2006 Italian football scandal and the relegation of Juventus to Serie B, Mutu decided to join Fiorentina, where he played consistently for the next five years. He then had a season at Cesena and French club Ajaccio, before returning to his native country with Petrolul Ploiești in 2014. After two more brief spells with Pune City and ASA Târgu Mureș, Mutu retired from professional football in 2016.
A controversial figure off the field, Mutu received widespread attention following a positive test for cocaine while playing for Chelsea in 2005, which resulted in his immediate release from the club, a subsequent seven-month ban from the Football Association, and Mutu later being ordered to pay £15.2 million in damages to his former employers, the largest financial penalty in FIFA history. He has unsuccessfully tried to appeal the fine numerous times, and was banned for a second time in 2010 following a positive test for sibutramine while at Fiorentina.
From his international debut in 2000, Mutu played 77 matches for the Romanian national team and scored 35 goals, a joint record alongside Gheorghe Hagi. He was included in the country's squads at the European Championship in 2000 and 2008. A four-time winner of the Romanian Footballer of the Year award, only Gheorghe Popescu and Gheorghe Hagi have received the award more times, with six and seven wins, respectively.
Mutu began his managerial career in April 2018 when he was appointed as manager of Romanian Liga I club Voluntari, signing a two-year contract following the departure of former manager Claudiu Niculescu. However, his tenure lasted just two months. Although he managed to save the club from relegation, winning a play-off against Chindia Târgoviște, the club's board of directors chose to fire Mutu on 14 June. Club president Dan Leasa disagreed with the board's decision and also left the club.
In July 2018, Mutu was signed by United Arab Emirates club Al Wahda to be the manager of their reserve team.
Mutu was in a relationship with Israeli model and actress Moran Atias during the early 2000s.
From 2001 to 2003, he was married to the Romanian actress and television presenter Alexandra Dinu with whom he has a son, Mario (2002).
In 2005, he married Consuelo Matos Gómez, a Dominican model, at the Romanian Orthodox Scala Celli church in Rome. They have two daughters, Adriana (2006) and Maya Vega (2008). They got divorced in 2015.
In 2016, he married Sandra Bachici, a former model.They have a son, Tiago Adrian Mutu (2017).
Serie A Hat-Trick 2009-02-15 |
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