Luiz Felipe Scolari took charge of Chelsea in the summer of 2008 and one of the first players to be signed by the Blues was Deco, the Portuguese international of Brazilian decent. Deco was an £8 million signing from Barcelona where he won the Champions League in addition to his first Champions League title which he won with Porto under Jose Mourinho. Disappointingly, he could not help the Blues win the Champions League which he was brought in to help achieve, but nonetheless he was still a very successful signing. He spent two good years with Chelsea winning 2 FA Cups and the Premier League – not too shabby by anyone’s standards.

Unfortunately, as reported in The Telegraph Deco has failed a random drugs test at his current team Fluminense in Brazil. Seemingly the Portuguese international has tested positive for a banned substance, the diuretic furosemide.

The test was conducted after Fluminense’s match with Boavista on 30 March which they won. The drug in question is actually used to conceal the use of other performance-enhancing substances hence FIFA has the drug on its prohibited list.

Deco has, through his lawyers, said that the substance could only have entered his system via contaminated vitamins bought in a pharmacy. The midfielder faces a fight to clear his name and he has been left out of the playing squad by Fluminense until the B sample of the test is released.

Unfortunately the early reports are not good for the slick playmaker, but let’s hope this is some kind of mix-up and that the 35 year old Deco is able to clear his name and finish what has been an exceptional career on a positive note.

UPDATE: So today Dailymail reports that Deco’s ‘B’ sample has confirmed the earlier findings, the results of the ‘B’ sample showed that it did indeed contain a banned diuretic. He now faces an automatic 30-day ban although he is planning to contest it so we shall see.