I made a thread a month or so back about countries who stopped producing top players, and Romania was one frequently mentioned in it. However, everyone went back to Gheorghe Hagi, and said nobody has come since then.
This underlined the shame of how Mutu’s career turned out, or at least, how it was defined. His is one footballer’s story I’d like to read a biography on. Was a child prodigy in Romania, but his world always seemed shady. Went to Italy, played for a couple of clubs before joining Parma and scoring 22 in 36 and getting a big money move to Chelsea. I remember the start of his Chelsea career - he was flying and looked a class above. Apparently didn’t fit in and got depressed, which led to his demons resurfacing with drink, drugs and hookers. He was investigated for Domestic Violence, and dated a load of TV stars and was quite a playboy. He was probably the first high-profile falling out Mourinho had with any player in his career.
As we know, he tested positive for cocaine and was sacked by Chelsea and banned from football. He ended up back in Italy at Juve via Livorno, in a bit of a dodgy deal as he was only a Livorno player for about two weeks. Juve were relegated shortly after for match-fixing and Mutu left for Fiorentina, finding his home, again showing world-class form. Chelsea weren’t happy that he was just moving on and they had lost money on him, with other clubs profiting for free. They sued him and he was ordered to pay about £15m, which he still owes them til this day and litigation is still ongoing as far as I know. During his time at Fiorentina, he also failed another drug test, this time for a more performance enhancing drug, and was again banned from football.
On the pitch, he equalled Hagi’s scoring record of 35 goals (in about half the games). He also appeared in a Snoop Dogg video once!
This underlined the shame of how Mutu’s career turned out, or at least, how it was defined. His is one footballer’s story I’d like to read a biography on. Was a child prodigy in Romania, but his world always seemed shady. Went to Italy, played for a couple of clubs before joining Parma and scoring 22 in 36 and getting a big money move to Chelsea. I remember the start of his Chelsea career - he was flying and looked a class above. Apparently didn’t fit in and got depressed, which led to his demons resurfacing with drink, drugs and hookers. He was investigated for Domestic Violence, and dated a load of TV stars and was quite a playboy. He was probably the first high-profile falling out Mourinho had with any player in his career.
As we know, he tested positive for cocaine and was sacked by Chelsea and banned from football. He ended up back in Italy at Juve via Livorno, in a bit of a dodgy deal as he was only a Livorno player for about two weeks. Juve were relegated shortly after for match-fixing and Mutu left for Fiorentina, finding his home, again showing world-class form. Chelsea weren’t happy that he was just moving on and they had lost money on him, with other clubs profiting for free. They sued him and he was ordered to pay about £15m, which he still owes them til this day and litigation is still ongoing as far as I know. During his time at Fiorentina, he also failed another drug test, this time for a more performance enhancing drug, and was again banned from football.
On the pitch, he equalled Hagi’s scoring record of 35 goals (in about half the games). He also appeared in a Snoop Dogg video once!