Chelsea are set to sign Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o from Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala on a free transfer.
The 32-year-old will join the Premier League club on a one-year-deal.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho moved for Eto’o after seeing two bids rejected for Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.
Earlier this week, it emerged Rooney was not prepared to force a move by handing in a formal transfer request, effectively ending the Blues’s hopes of signing the England striker.
Four-time African Footballer of the Year Eto’o was a key part of Mourinho’s Champions League-winning Inter Milan side in 2010, and he then became the highest-paid player in the world when he moved to Anzhi in 2011.
Anzhi have also sold Brazil winger Willian, 25, to Chelsea after their billionaire owner Suleyman Kerimov decided to significantly reduce the club’s budget.
Eto’o started his career at Real Madrid but was loaned out to Leganes and Real Mallorca before making a permanent move to Mallorca in 1999.
The striker, who was part of the Cameroon team that wlifted the African Nations Cup in 2002, won the Copa del Rey before making the switch to Barcelona in 2004 .
During his time at the Nou Camp, he won the Champions League twice – in 2006 and 2009 – scoring in both finals, as well as winning the Spanish league three times.
In 2009, Barcelona paid Inter Milan £40m plus Eto’o for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the striker went on to win the Champions League again in his first season under Mourinho at the San Siro.
He joined Anzhi, where he reportedly earned £167,825 a week, in 2011.
BBC SPORT
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