Mutu to play in England or Italy

Romanian striker Adrian Mutu, dismissed by English Premier League club Chelsea for taking cocaine, said on Tuesday he would continue his career in England or Italy after completing a seven-month ban.

"Over the next two weeks, I will have to choose between several proposals that I have from England and from Italy," Mutu told reporters.

"At this moment, it's not the country that is important for me, but the club," added Mutu, whose new agent will be Italian Alessandro Moggi, son of Juventus managing director Luciano Moggi. "It (the new club) must help me come back and be even stronger than I was.

"The English would support me with all my bad and good things," he added. "It wasn't the English people who determined me to take drugs. My life was totally unprofessional. So it's up to me to come back."

The 25-year-old, who parted company with former agent Gheorghe Popescu and the Becali Sport Management company on Monday, and who was last week banned by the English FA and fined 20,000 pounds ($36,880), can resume playing next May.

Until then he will undergo a drug education and rehabilitation programme required by the English FA, although he denied he was addicted to drugs.

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"I think I can control myself but I need the full support of this great man who is (my psychotherapist) Peter Kay," Mutu, said. "The FA asked for a (drug) test once a month but I asked for weekly tests to go on for two years after my ban expires."

Mutu said he will join the Romania squad in the coming days before the World Cup qualifier against Armenia.

"I'll be near my team mates with my soul and with my body in Yerevan, nothing more," he said.

"What I want to tell to any player tempted to take drugs is that eventually he will lose everything: club, national team, family," he added.

Mutu, who was wearing his wedding ring at the news conference, said he found peace and support over the past two weeks near his former wife TV presenter and actress Alexandra Dinu and his three-year-old son Mario.

"I ask God not to put my son in the situation to choose one day between taking drugs or refusing them," Mutu, who had confessed he took drugs because he felt sad and lonely, said.