Cape Town — As Europe's big soccer leagues get under way, the news making headlines on the continent's sports pages is the potential transfer of Cameroonian national team captain Samuel Eto'o from Inter Milan to the Russian side, Anzhi Makhachkala, for a whopping fee of U.S. $85 million and a $25.5 million a year salary after tax.
Anzhi billionaire owner Suleiman Kerimov has already spent big money on former Brazilian internationals Roberto Carlos, Diego Tardelli and Jucilei, and now he wants to do the same for Eto’o.
The 30-year-old star was in Gabon last week, where he joined the country's president, Ali Bongo, to inspect construction work at the venues that will host the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations finals, which Gabon will co-host with Equatorial Guinea.
At a press conference in Cameroon's commercial capital, Douala, on Sunday the striker dodged questions about his transfer. “It’s possible that I could go and it’s possible that I could stay,” he said.
But according to reports in the Italian media, negotiations are already at an advanced stage in what Inter Milan considers, in the words of its president, Massimo Moratti, "an interesting offer".
What is particularly interesting is that if the deal goes through, Eto'o could go into history as the richest athlete ever.
In the social media, the debate is raging: To accept or not to accept. Some argue that Eto'o has won all there is to win in world football – except for the World Cup – and considering his age he has nothing to lose by going for the big pay.
Others argue that the Russian league is obscure and a player of his standard – used to the affluent and publicized leagues of western Europe – will find life difficult in Russia.
Another question is: how much money is “enough”. Although, given his very successful career as one of the world's best footballer for decades, money cannot be an issue for him, the millions he is being offered might be an amount too tempting to ignore for a player at the twilight of his career.
Whichever way he goes, he has some tough decisions to make.
