The former Romanian striker Adrian Mutu (46 years old), now a coach at Petrolul Ploiești, became, in 2003, the first footballer bought by the Russian Roman Abramovich since the purchase of the London club, the oligarch paying the sum of 23 million euros to the Italians from Parma .
Abramovici, in the shadow of Putin
The Pitesti native was for a while the favorite of Nicolai, the boss’s boy, but everything broke after the doping scandal in which Mutu was involved. Even Abramovic is no longer at Chelsea, a club he had to sell as a result of the sanctions applied by the EU to the oligarchs around Vladimir Putin.
“I was picked up by a bodyguard from the stadium”
The Russian was a discreet presence at his team’s matches. “You only saw him at matches and that was it. In the beginning he was more humane, he still came through the changing rooms, gave out bonuses. He gave a lot of money. After a win with Manchester United, we had 80,000 pounds as a player.
That’s when we climbed to first place for the first time in the Abramovich era. He came into the dressing room and gave 80,000 pounds for each player, and we were 25 at the time.
He had a villa on an important estate in London. It was a big house. He had a normal house at his level. No one entered the house, simply.
A bodyguard would pick me up from the stadium and take me to his house, I didn’t go by personal car. I didn’t even really know how to get there“, said Adrian Mutu on Don Mutu, a show sponsored by Don, the betting operator for whom the technician advertises.
After being left without Chelsea, Abramovich became involved in the peace talks in Russia and Ukraine after the start of the war started by Putin.
