Former Chelsea star Adrian Mutu has opened up on how his addiction to cocaine stopped him from winning the prestigious Ballon d’Or during his time at Stamford Bridge.
Mutu joined Chelsea from Parma in 2003 in a big money move which cost the club €22.5 to begin the era of Roman Abramovich.
Despite his impressive start to life at Stamford Bridge, he fell out with the club’s newly-appointed manager, Jose Mourinho in the following season with each accusing the other of lying about whether the player was injured for a 2006 World Cup qualifying match against the Czech Republic.
In September 2024, Mutu was banned from football for eight months after testing positive for cocaine use.
The Romanian forward has now opened up on his battle with cocaine, and how it affected his chances of winning the Ballon d’Or award.
He said: “Taking cocaine during my time at Chelsea was the worst decision I could have made in my career.
“I was alone and sad, but neither depression nor anything else justified my actions. Zero tolerance – that was Chelsea’s policy regarding drugs. And I think that’s fair.
“I made a mistake, strayed from the path, and paid the price for it. I was caught off guard. I wasn’t used to that life. I was unprepared.
“I arrived at Chelsea during a turbulent time in my personal life, and I found myself caught up in too many excuses and lies. I was too young and too alone.
“I’ve reflected on that many times. I believe that for more than a season, I was amongst the best players in the world, so I could have won the Ballon d’Or award easily. But bad decisions prevented me from doing so. I try not to beat myself up about it.”
In 2003, Mutu was nominated for the Ballon d’Or award after scoring 22 goals for Parma in 36 matches in the Serie A before sealing a move to Chelsea.
He earned the same number of votes as legends Ronaldinho, Filippo Inzaghi, Jan Koller and Francesco Toldo in the voting for the prestigious award.
Mutu’s relationship with Mourinho became strained as the Portuguese manager got wind of his party-boy lifestyle, and suspicion that he was using cocaine in pre-season before he was eventually banned in September 2004.
Subsequently, the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber ordered Mutu to pay €17,173,990 in compensation to his former club, Chelsea FC, for breach of contract.
This included €16,500,000 for the unamortised portion of the transfer fee paid to Parma, €307,340 for the unamortised portion of the sign-on fee (received by Mutu).
