Rumor of the Year: Messi’s Russian Suitor

This might be true – hell, it probably is – but is so bananas it’s impossible to believe. Nonetheless, let’s do numbers first.

Proposed fee: 250m.
Proposed wages: 560,000 euros/week.

Those numbers could easily be confused for those of someone looking to snap up an entire football club, but no. They’re the numbers Anzhi reportedly threw at Lionel Messi in an attempt to lure him to the promised land that is Dagestan. But only on match days.

Those are the numbers turned down. Of course Lionel Messi is a football club himself, bringing in far more through branding and merchandising than would be worth his sale at even that price.

The Argentine was said to have been offered a 560,000 euro-a-week, five-year deal but has rejected their advances.

The contract would have made Messi the highest-paid player in football, netting the 25-year-old around 30 million euros per year after tax.

Former Barca striker Samuel Eto’o, who now plays for Anzhi, holds that title at the moment, earning a reported 20 million per season.

This outlandish rumor turns into a crime in that Samuel Eto’o has drifted entirely into the periphery of relevant football since becoming the world’s highest-paid player. Find that man some spotlight again.

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Category: World Football