ADRIAN MUTU AND CHELSEA SAGA 15 YEARS LATER
In the early stages of the Roman Abramovichera, the star at Stamford Bridge was not Frank Lampard or John Terry but a talented Romanian named Adrian Mutu. The Talented forward was one of the first signings by Abramovich when he joined from Parma for a fee worth £15.8million in 2003.
He was banned for 7 months by the FA and subsequently sacked by Chelsea, who demanded compensation for breach of contract. Both parties went to court and in 2008 FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber ordered Mutu to pay an excess of £17million in compensation to Chelsea
Mutu dragged the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport who also ruled in favour of Chelsea in 2015. The Romanian appealed against the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights labelling the ruling unjust and biased.
The European Court of Human Rights gave a landmark ruling in 2017 in which it upheld the decision taking by the appeal court. The court also ruled that the Court of Arbitration of Sports had delivered an impartial and rational judgment.
This judgment meant that Mutu is bound by law to pay the £17million compensation to Chelsea. Thos ended the decade long court tussle between the player and Chelsea.
The former Chelsea star had a downward slope to his career after leaving Chelsea. Mutu had stints at Juventus, Fiorentina, Cessna and Ajaccio before returning back to Romania to play for Pretrolul Ploiesti. He currently manages the reserve team of United Arab Emirates club Al Wahda.