Is Etoo Joining Chelsea?

Samuel Fils Etoo (32), the Anzhi Makhachkala striker and Cameroon international may be leaving the ambitious and high spending Dagestan-Russia club with a couple of other stars of the club.  Etoo has just indicated that he would be interested in joining Chelsea to reunite with his former coach, the Portuguese Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho wants to add a world class striker to his team, but has set his sight on Manchester United's want-away striker and England international, Wayne Rooney (27). Chelsea's second bid of €35m was rejected with the club's stance being that Rooney is not for sale.

Though Jose Mourinho, has stated publicly, that he will not give up on chasing the signature of Rooney until the transfer window closes at the end of the month, indications are that he may be also discretly looking elsewhere as a back up plan, since the new season is starting this weekend.

Samuel Fils Etoo

It has been reported in the media, that he may be thinking of bringing Etoo Samuel, to the Stamford Bridge.

Etoo is quoted in the Daily Mirror, as having interest to play under Mourinho again, after their time together at Inter, where they won some trophies including a treble, among which was a champions' league cup.

"There is only one Jose Mourinho. I have played under a lot of great coaches - but there is no other character in the game like Jose."

"He is one of the best coaches in the world - and we had a lot of success together at Inter Milan. I would like to have the chance to play under him again - because it is never boring when Jose is around," he said.

The footballer continued, "Of course Chelsea are a great team - and when we have all the offers on the table then I will discuss with my agent and see what my next step is."

The Dagestan club, Anzhi, are very keen to allow some of their big stars to leave due to financial problems. It was reported in the media that the billionaire owner, Suleiman Kerimov, lost hundreds of millions of Euros in the stock market through Uralkali the Russian company that produces potash, in which he has the majority shares.

Following this situation, he ordered a sharp cut down on the club's budget. The president of the club, Remchukov, said in his twitter account that, "many of our expensive stars will leave Anzhi, while the club's budget will be decreased to €40m - €54m a year."

"We failed to clinch rapid success. Now Anzhi will develop it's academy to the medium-term plans of the club development," Remchukov said.

Samuel Etoo, who happened to be among the most expensive players in the world since he joined the club, earning a salary of €20m. No one is sure if Chealsea, will be ready to offer him the same salary or not. Samuel may also take a pay cut to join Chelsea, since the club owner, Roman Abramovich has toned down, his father christmas spending on the club.

Samuel Fils Etoo is undeniably, the most successful African footballer. He has won many league titles which included three champions' league and the African Cup of Nations trophies and two olympic golds. He is the only African player to have won the African footballer of the year award, three times. And at 32 years, he is still hungry for more glories.