[Pat Murphy]

Eto'o Heading To Uzbekistan?

Barcelona star Samuel Eto'o has been audaciously linked with Uzbekistani outfit Kuruvchi, but the Catalan club have already moved to deny any such deal...

The Cameroon international - who started his professional career at Real Madrid - rose to stardom with Barcelona as a crucial piece in the 2006 Champions League winning side.

However, injuries and the slow decline of a golden era in Catalonia has led to major players heading for the exit door, with Deco already at Chelsea, Ronaldinho poised for Milan and Eto'o expected to follow.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Milan, Inter and even Liverpool have all been linked with the hit-man, but it appears that no offers have been made nor any interest made concrete.

There remains an outside possibility the 27-year-old will head to Arsenal as part of a swap deal involving Emmanuel Adebayor, and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's fondness of Barcelona's players could well lead him to making a move for the man ex-Blues boss Jose Mourinho had his eye on in 2006, when the Russian instead brought in Milan's Andriy Shevchenko.

There remains an outside possibility Mourinho may still link up with Eto'o, a player he has publicly praised on more than one occasion, at his new club Internazionale, though the conventional wisdom remains that they have more than enough firepower up front. Their city rivals Milan, meanwhile, have their sights set on Eto'o's Barcelona team-mate Ronaldinho, and will not have the financial clout to bring in another big name.

So just where will he end up? Uzbek team Kuruvchi's sporting director, Bahtier Babayev, audaciously claimed the former Real Mallorca man would be signing a contract this week, adding that a good relationship between the clubs proved decisive.

"Eto'o will arrive in Tashkent on Thursday and will sign a contract up until at least the end of the year," he declared.

"The length of the contract will depend on our performance in the AFC Champions League. We will play Saipa in the quarter-finals and Eto'o is our primary before the knockout stage of the tournament.

"Then if we can agree with the player, he may continue to play for our club after.

"The deciding factor in negotiations was not money, but the good relationship between the management of our club and Barcelona. The personal friendship between club presidents lowered the player's price."

However, an official Barcelona spokesperson has moved to deny any possibility of a transfer: "Nobody at the club knows anything about this. I don't think it's very likely."

Fernando Montabon, Goal.com

Goal.com - Barcelona - Eto'o Heading To Uzbekistan?


They have also announced that they hope to sign Xavi in the next 4 days. Along with Iniesta and then Puyol afterwards

Definately a publicity stunt.