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Athlete of the Week – Footballer Adrian Mutu

Mutu has scored his first double for his new team Ajaccio.

Florin Orban, 05.02.2013, 13:33

Since last fall, Adrian Mutu, one of the best-known Romanian football players at this time, has been playing in the French championship. His team, Ajaccio, is one of the two teams representing Corsica in the French premiere league, the other one being Bastia.

At this point, Ajaccio ranks 14th in the standings, which is why it was a great surprise when on Saturday they won at home 3-1 against Olympique Lyonnais, ranking second, one of the favorites both in the domestic championship and the Champions’ League. One of the people who made this happen is Adrian Mutu, who in that game managed his first ‘double whammy’ since he’s been playing in France.

Lyon opened with the goal scored by Alexandre Lacazette in the 53rd minute. The hosts managed to even the score in only 4 minutes, through Moroccan player Chakhir Belghazouani. Mutu put his team at an advantage once again by scoring a header in the 65th minute from the edge of the guests’ 6 meter box, then scored a penalty shot in extra time after the guests had committed a foul against Kenyan Dennis Oliech.

For this performance, extolled by the French media extensively, RRI has designated Adrian Mutu Athlete of the Week.

The Romanian footballer was born in Calinesti, in Arges County, southern Romania in 1979. In Romania he played for FC Arges and Dinamo Bucharest. In 2003, Adrian Mutu transferred to Chelsea London, from AC Parma, for almost 16 million pounds, an unheard of amount for Romanian football at that time. In September 2004, Chelsea kicked him out after only one season because he had got caught using cocaine. After an 8-month suspension, he transferred to Juventus Turin. When Juventus was relegated, he moved to Fiorentina, where he was considered one of the team leaders for a long time.

In early 2010, he was once again suspended for using substances banned by the international anti-doping regulators. Leaving Fiorentina, he went to Cesena between 2011 and 2012, then moved on to Ajaccio.