Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona has made the first steps to extend the contract of Barcelona forward and Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o (27).
Because of the delicateness of the operation after Barcelona wanted Eto'o to leave at the start of this season, Barcelona president Joan Laporta has taken charge of the renewal. Over the last weeks, Laporta has been trying to restore the relationships with the player and his entourage. The positive contacts by telephone have lead to a first working lunch.
Eto'o would be ready to turn the page and is totally involved in the new project and Laporta has agreed that Barcelona will make a serious effort. While the player nevertheless isn't in a hurry to close a new deal, the club has the intention to renew the contract of the striker before the end of the season.
A deal seems to be possible, but it cannot be predicted when an agreement could be reached. There will be new meetings scheduled in the coming weeks and months. To avoid additional pressure, both parties have agreed to not make public statements on the negotiations.
Other clubs are meanwhile looking to sign Eto'o, whose current contract with Barcelona expires in the summer of 2010. While Inter Milan manager José Mourinho has urged his club to at least give the transfer of the Cameroonian a try, Manchester City would already have made the first steps.
An intermediary of the English Premier League club would already have contacted both Barcelona and Eto'o. Manchester City would be preparing a 60 million euro° bid for Eto'o, who will be offered a year salary of 15 million euro. The concrete offer could be made in the coming weeks.
Read more:
Messi and Eto'o on Manchester City wish list
Eto'o: "I have no intention of leaving"
Inter and Juventus ready to join race for Eto'o
Friday 2 January 2009
First positive meeting on Eto'o renewal
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14 comments:
I don't think we should sell him in january because it could disturb the balance in the squad, offer him a contract renewal. He will be one of the hotest strikers this summer and if an similiar offer from City or Inter is on the table then I think we should take it, after all it is a business.
60 million euro =
83 million us dollar
58 million british pound
Damn City and their Abu Dhabi group
60 million buys a lot of striker in this market. Or even two strikers. I start thinking about Benzema, who despite what Aulas says, will go for about 40 million. That leaves 20 for a secondary talented striker, and a dual-sided left/right back.
Eto'o has been kicking out the jams, but if someone offers you crazy money, you have to wonder sometimes. I think I'm with Simon on this one.
On the other hand, Eto'o's goal scoring rate for us has been phenomenal. He works so well within our system, playing off of Messi, Xavi and Henry. I'm just not sure he would be as effective anywhere else.
Of course not in jan. There is no one that even think about selling now. The sooner is in the summer.
I dont want to sell him för 60 milj and take 40-50 to buy someone else like Benzema or Addebayor or whoever.
Proffit of 20 milj euro is simply small money for our club.
And i dont agree it is mostly business. No, first of all it is the honnor of the club in the sport issue (winning trophics).
I dont think that eto'o wants to leave. He had a good opportunite the last summar when the club a Pep didnt want him. And he stayed againt all.
If we will sell someone från the attackers this summer, it will be probably Henry.
Benzema will never give his heart to the club like Eto'o. He is too much blancos.
Oh, there won't be any roster moves made before summer, for sure. My sole hope is that the club doesn't let Eto'o hold us hostage. He needs us more than we need him, given that our system made him into the perceived striker that he is.
And I use the word perceived because he hasn't demonstrated (yet) that he can attain the same dizzying heights of productivity anywhere else.
I just don't perceive Eto'o in the same core sense that I perceive Xavi, Puyol, Iniesta, even Valdes. Of course the same is true of Messi, as well.
Kxevin, Eto'o established himself long before he joined Barca. He fits into our system well but i think he needs Barca only as much as Barca needs him.
It would be a mistake to let him go but i expect this deal to get complicated due to Eto'o s wage demands.
hmm.. Como se dice Eto'o's, Eto'os , Eto'os'
Come on Kxevin there is no 'perception' about it. Look at the facts. Eto'o is the leading scorer in La Liga for a reason. There is no perception about this. It is fact.
If you were a top class striker and the club told you they wanted to sell you, how would you make you feel?? You can't tell me your ego and pride wouldn't be bruised. Eto'o on the other hand said he wanted to stay all along and worked twice as hard to show his commitment to the club and his teamates. You can't fault him this season.
I agree he was probably complacent and less motivated the last 2 seasons. The culture of the team changed as players did what they wanted through a lack of discipline. Self management never works at this level. Telling these guys they are superstars and they can do what they want is not the way to get the best out of them.
If society accepts that people should get paid more if they perform well then why shouldn't that apply to footballers?? Eto'o deserves an increase in salary and he should receive what the market and his performance dictates.
The system is good but other strikers failed like Kluivert even though he had the likes of Guardiola and the De Boar brothers feeding him. Eto'o is as much to Barca as any other player. Valdes has had poor seasons also and his ability has been questioned but to his credit fought through it and is now very good. Eto'o deserves the same chance. To sell him will completely UNBALANCE the team.
Some more word about eto'o.
We need also to remind ourself that he was two times injuried, both 6 monthes. This is the biggest reason for his performance the last two years (and of course the social situation between the players).
Eto'o is very speciell one in the way he involves emotionell to the club, matches, competitions. Sometimes it can go wrong and this make people irritated. But mostly he give a fire to the playing in a positive manner.
I think eto'o becomes more mature. He is older now and learns the rules of behavior. He is 27/28 and i guess that he had 4-5 years more when he can continue deliver in the highest level.
He is more experience and more balanced and still not so old.
I want to have him in the club for let say 2012 or so.
Therer are otherwise many strikers, who play in big clubs in england, italy, spain etc, that don´t deliver so much goals and good performasnces.
Big stars and big clubs is like a relationships. Both need each other. Cristiano ronaldo needed/needs United and also the opposite.
Today is a match!
40 million for Benzema: no way, Kxevin, you do'nt know Aulas. He wants to keep him until 2010 and who wants him in 2009 will have to pay a record fee. 60 million couldn't be enough, so why change someone who has't proven himself yet at the highest level while you have the best guy for that spot?
The argument "he only played well with us" is ridiculous. He did great at Mallorca and with Cameroon. And don't forget he joined us being 22, so he just hadn't the chance to do a lot before that. And in general: how many players have been at tehir top in two top teams? Then you can say the same about Benzema, Drogba, Adebayor, Torres, Shevchenko, Cristiano Ronaldo. Van Nistelrooij (Man Utd, Madrid) is probably the only current top striker who did great at two teams, but he was lucky to change at the right age. You could say the same about Messi and Xavi, by the way... Or Ronaldinho. Lousy argument.
And the guy doesn't "hold us hostage" more than Busquets and Xavi have done. Barcelona just made a mistake not to have renewed him long before, in the summer of 2007 for example.
No player matches his goals. Even in the two years the team didn't play well, he always scored his goals while long time not being on top because of injuries. And he always kept running for the team.
Hope they can solve things like grown-up people, although you cannot blame Eto'o anything after how he has been treated last summer and the great way he has reacted to all that: on the pitch.
If we get 60 million I think we should sell him.
Eto'o did okay at Mallorca. In no other situation has he had the productivity levels that he has achieved with Barcelona. That's fact. How he would do anywhere else is unknown. He came to us because our main rivals didn't want to keep him, right? Why? Good question.
There are players for systems. I can't see Eto'o doing very well in the Premiership. The pace of play wouldn't suit his often unreliable first touch, and he wouldn't do well as a lone striker.
If Aulas wants to keep Benzema, then he can. Rock on. He'll be keeping a player against his will, and that will only work for a season, at best. Benzema is an unknown quantity, like many other players. But his skill set is one that can work anywhere. That's apparent.
Ronaldinho was very good for PSG, great for us, and would be very good for Milan if he would just back away from the table and get in shape. His game works in any system, which I don't think would be true of Eto'o. No knock on the man and what he's done for the club, just how I see things.
Busquets and Xavi signed for reasonable amounts, given their value to, and status within the team. Eto'o will want to be the side's highest-paid player, mark my words. But he doesn't deserve to be. So negotiations will not go well.
And don't forget that the way Eto'o was treated last summer wasn't one sided. He did his part to earn his way out of town. It wasn't as if the team just decided that they would treat him poorly. He played his way back into the team's good graces, but don't delude yourself into thinking that good play is anything other than self interest. The better he looks, the higher his price.
You're twisting everything against Eto'o, Kxevin. I don't think a discussion is possible, you're anti-Eto'o in an irrational way.
Hey refter, its not van Nistelrooij or van Nistelrooy its VAN NOSTRIL-BOY !!
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