Samuel Eto’o Joins Anzhi Makhachkala

Samuel Eto'o's protacted move to Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala is finally complete, with the Cameroonian striker leaving Inter Milan to become the highest-paid player in the sport. The motivation for him to make a move isn't hard to divine - he's been promised a whopping €20.5M per season for the pleasure of his company (and, presumably, his goals). Inter are also unlikely to have too many issues about the move, because they're getting good money for Eto'o as well, with a reported transfer fee of somewhere between €25M and €27M and huge savings in his salary.

At 30, Eto'o is past his prime, although he's still more than capable of terrorising Serie A defences and should be a hit in Russia (apart from the racism thing - one assumes he won't enjoy that). Anzhi have now got themselves quite a team, having already relieved Chelsea of Yuri Zhirkov earlier in the summer and keeping Roberto Carlos on as captain. Is it enough to unseat the big(ger) sides at the top of the table? We'll just have to wait and see, but it's certainly an interesting experiment.