who is adrian mutu?

Adrian Mutu might be coming to Zenit St Petersburg. Fiorentina wants some double digit millions of some currency for him. The money part is not interesting. What's interesting is what Adrian Mutu did before he got to Fiorentina. Because that part makes Zenit's bid for Mutu ... much more interesting.

In 2004 Adrian Mutu failed a drug test. He tested positively for using cocaine. Chelsea fired the man, and filed a breach of contract claim. What it means is that Adrian Mutu probably had a clause in his contract that said "you can't do drugs! if you do drugs you violate the contract. if you violate the contract you have to pay us lots of money." Adrian Mutu was ordered to pay Chelsea a total of £9.6m. And a few weeks ago this number grew to €17m. Which is around £14.5m now. I can hardly believe that he has that kind of cash. He won't be making that kind of cash to spare either: he is 29.

Roman Abramovich owns Chelsea which means by the transitive power of the concept of ownership that Adrian Mutu owes that big hunk of cash to Roman Abramovich. Roman Abramovich is a huge Russian soccer supporter. The fact that Guus Hiddink was named as Russia's national team's headcoach is all Abramovich. Clearly the same goes for the temporary helming of Chelsea by Hiddink this spring: Hiddink had an opportunity to return the favor.

So Adrian Mutu might go and play for Zenit St. Petersburg. Why would he ever agree? Zenit had barely made it into Europa League last year. But the way they have been doing this season, they might not even make any European club competition. If Fiorentina really wanted to dump him and grab all that cash quickly and last minute, then I guess he has no choice. However, one can also hope that his agent can find him a better national club competition than Russian Premier League -- no offense, there messrs Abramovich, Mutko, etc.

Zenit seems like not such a great choice for Adrian Mutu. You don't even hear him complain at the possibility, and Adrian Mutu knows how to complain.

So let's recap: Adrian Mutu owes Abramovich lots of money. Abramovich wants to raise the level of Russian soccer. You think Abramovich might forgive some of that debt if Mutu does a couple of years in Russian exile?

UPDATE: Zenit St. Petersburg PR department says that they are not interested in Mutu. So I guess my ruminations might be ... ummm ... moot.