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 lifted 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.
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