Thursday 11 June 2009

Eto'o could have deal with Milan for 2010

Italian sports site Sportmediaset claims that Barcelona forward and Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o (28) will most probably join AC MIlan next summer when his contract with Barcelona expires.

Milan transfer adviser Ernesto Bronzetti would have made the first contacts with the player's agent Josep Maria Mesalles, after which Milan officials got involved with the permission of new AC Milan manager Leonardo. An agreement could be reached but cannot be officially announced until next January. This would also be the main reason why Eto'o doesn't want to be included in a deal on Inter striker Ibrahimovic.

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Eto'o is in Barcelona between two international games with Cameroon to analyze his future. Sources from the entourage of the player denied that Eto'o would have met with Inter officials at an airport in Paris when he was travelling back from Africa to Barcelona earlier this week.

Read more:
Agent Eto'o repeats wish to continue
Deal with Inter on Ibrahimovic
Barcelona wants to renew Eto'o

53 comments:

TengkuAmir10 said...

dont leave for ac ,leave for inter!!!!!!!!!we want ibra,dont stand in our operation!!

Don Luis said...

No way Barcelona will let Eto'o go for free.
Laporta says he wants eto'o to stay, well where is the contract renewal?

I hate sometimes how Barca treat their international players like Ronaldinho.

I wont be surprised if Messi in the future gets treated like this.

fcbee said...

Messi grew up at the club, so that's a difference. But the non-youth and non-Catalans sometimes indeed seem to be less valued than the others.

If he leaves for free, that's he's choice and barça can't do much about that. There's a contract and he's just fulfiling it. But the transfer summer is still long...

TengkuAmir10 said...

agree with u don.if barca doesnt sell eto this summer then they r gonna extend his contract so dat he doesnt go for free.so next time,media should be smarter than just thinking that they think milan can get eto 4 free..

James said...

@Don Luis

How can you blame management for their treatment of international players. Eto'o makes more money than Xavi and Iniesta and has done so for a long time.

You can't force a guy to sign a renewal, the player has to agree too. Right now Eto'o wants a huge raise because he knows he can get a huge signing bonus from another club if plays out his contract here.

If anything he would be screwing us over although it's well in his rights to try to get as much as he can.

groga said...

We should have renewed him earlier anyway, now we've placed ourselved in a weak position to negotiate.

The thing is: for whatever reason we don't offer him a renewal. So don't count on a renewal, he'll go this summer or next summer.

skanjos said...

if eto doesnt agree to leave or doesnt sign a new contract expect a lot of bench time for him,there is the african cup and world cup i dont think eto will want to sit on the bench.... remember saviola?different case but thats how eto should be treated if he does want to leave for free and doesnt appreciate what the club has offered to him till now.he has taken 2 cl,if he wants more he can sign a new contract if he wants money man city is offering plenty,if he wants to screw us he goes to milan free but we get to screw him this year hehehe.

i think eto will leave this summer,he loves our team and knows his options are 2:sign a new contract or leave this summer

john said...

i seriously don't like eto'o's attitude.he is way too much arrogant and selfish.he earns so much money yet his money hunger never dies.barca first tried to renew him,since he wants to earn more than 1m/yr barca is forced to sell him

groga said...

They've NEVER even tried to renew him, John. Last summer they wanted him out, remember, and this summer they didn't make him an offer either despite him having his best season ever.

James said...

They did try to renew him this season but he said he didn't want to discuss it until the season was over.

Besides, he needs to get over himself. Who cares if he wasn't renewed earlier? Before this year Xavi, Valdes, Marquez, Puyol were all expiring in 2010. Valdes/Marquez/Puyol all still have expiring contracts coming up.

groga said...

Well, now the season is over, what are they waiting for if they want to offer him a renewal?

They do it with Marquez, Valdes and Puyol, so why not with Eto'o. They met with his agent on Monday but nothing.

They-just-don't-want-to-renew-him, who doesn't want to see that is blind. They even don't want to make him an offer for let's say the same salary as he's getting now because they're afraid he might accept... :)

marc said...

hwat you expect groga?do u expect barca to pay him 13m euro/yr?this is what he demanded from inter and milan.he scores just because xavi,iniesta and messi set up goals for him.he was pathetic in 2nd part of last season yet his demand is ever increasing

Aussie Barca Fan said...

This is a tricky situation for the club. Last season they told him they didn't want him. Eto'o was in a weaker bargaining position as he still had 2 years left on his contact. He changed his attitude and played very well. Now he is wanted by many clubs with 1 year left on his contract and has the upper hand in negotiations. I think he wants one last big pay cheque to finish his career (which is understandable). The bad thing for the club is he will most likely reject any offers now and see out the remainder of his contract.

What does the club then do? Bench him? Find another replacement? Try and force him out to get some money out of him? Send him to the B team like Beckham?

This is not an easy situation. I am not taking anyones side as I feel both Samu and the club both have strong points to argue.

I just hope a compromise is reached like Ronnie and Deco and everyone can move on. If he signs and extended contract that would be my preferred option.

groga said...

Yeah, let's bash our best striker for I don't know how many years a bit...

You don't know what his demands are. And if he would leave if would of course for a club that offers him most.

I just say: if they want to renew him, they should offer him a decent deal, then they can check if he wants to renew or not.

Ramzi said...

Even if eto'o can stay to go for free next season, He will not do it. Not because he is an angel, but because it doesn't suit him as a football professional. If he stays he will not have lot of love, he will be unsettled. So he will waste a whole season. football life is short, no one would waste it like that, specially when he is approaching the thirties. Its better for him to buy out his contract now than to stay. After a great season he will be able to get a better contract now than he will later after one year swinging between ACN and Barcelona Bench.

I think he will use this card just to put more pressure on the club. But will not activate that option. Unless if I am wrong about him. I think he has lot of ego, selfishness and arrogance. But he is not a typical mercenary who put money over football career. And he is smart.I am counting on that.

Scano814 said...

this is eto'o revenge from last summer...he will alway hold a grudge.

this is like van basten and seedorf.

i think he, dinho and seedorf will make a nice squad of stubborn people who think too highly of themselves.

I do like Eto'o but I really think he thinks of himself as too full of himself...i guess the same can be said of zlatan...but I would rather find out than deal with another year of samuel

groga said...

"After a great season he will be able to get a better contract now than he will later after one year swinging between ACN and Barcelona Bench."

Unless he now already agrees on a contract with another club, Ramzi. That would be kind of a genius move...


And he will have his minutes anyway next season if he stays: the season will be harder, more matches on a hsorter period and whoever they will bring in to replace him (will they really get someone if he stays, will they be able to afford someone?), the fans will scream for Eto'o if his substitute doesn't score for two games in a row.

Søren Mortensen said...

There is nothing stopping him form leaving next year on a free.
In the same way, there is nothing stopping Barca from placing him on the Atlétic team for the season.
I'm for selling him now, there seems to be too much tension and he is not good enough.
If he decides to stay and leave for free, I think he should spend the season with Atlétic or on loan somewhere, he should not get one minute with the first team.

jordy said...

This would be a disaster..We need his transfer money. OR we sell him for at least 35million this summer, or we renew him the same contract he has now untill 2013 or he plays with barça athletic :)
We should seriously harm milan too. pact with paco when his contract expires!!!

frank said...

i have no respect for eto'o now. i remember once he met mourinho in london in order to join chelsea.But unfortunately they didn't want to match his wage demand.So he remained in barca and they signed anelka.why he is so hungry for money??

ron said...

who is eto'o without assist from xavi,iniesta and messi??

yuti said...

He's just fulfiling his contract, which both parties agreed on, so what's the problem? The club has made mistake after mistake in this case, so they should live with the consequences now...

pique said...

yeah he is fulfilling his contract.he has no commitment for the club.he disrspected our prev coach,had problem with ronnie.pep also dislikes him.there is a serious problem with this guy.please send to barca athletic and let him rot on bench.i dont want this guy in my club anymore

casper said...

eto'o misses way too many chances.I don't want this overrated player in my club anymore.we have henry and iniesta to fill up the gap in left wing.don't forget about gai.so we don't need a left winger anymore.what we need is powerful no 9.

yuti said...

Does the club has commitment for him? Would be the question in my opinion. They wanted him out last summer, they don't even try to renew him now. And then he should be "committed"? Respect should come from both sides.

Anonymous said...

lol yuti didn't laporo try 100 times last season to renew his contract.you are more eto'o supporter than barca.you belong to africa..isn't it :)

yuti said...

"lol yuti didn't laporo try 100 times last season to renew his contract."

No. Not once.


And no. Barcelona just didn't act right in this case and it's not because you're a Barça fan that you should kneel for everything the club does.

Anonymous said...

some of the guys here are season supporter,glory hunter.they try to justify a players action who has no devotion for club.he is so egoistic he can't adjust with any manager in the world

James said...

To be fair, just because you haven't heard about an offer doesn't mean Barcelona doesn't want to renew. Perhaps Barca thought of extending him at his old contract, but during the meeting the agent says ok, since you didn't sign him last year, now he wants 12 million per year. If you're Barcelona is there a point in tabling the 7.5 million offer you had planned? No, of course not, you just say 'ok we'll think about it and get back to you'. Then you look at your other options, including selling or swapping. The club always have to do what's best for the club, and whatever loyalties to any one player is second to the interests of the club. That's not just blind loyalty to whatever the club does, and that's not disrespect to Eto'o, it's the same when it comes to Xavi, Iniesta or anyone. Club > Player

The opinions here are always extreme here. Either people think Eto'o is a greedy guy or think Barcelona disrespects him. The truth is nobody knows exactly what's going on behind closed doors. Both parties are trying to do what's best for themselves, as they should. Just let it play out. There's no such thing as Barcelona not acting 'right' as you would suggest yuti. It's not like Eto'o came back 'devoted' to the club, he came back because nobody could match his salary demands.

yuti said...

Don't start with that kind of ridiculous "glory hunters" argument. If you want the club to progress, you have to be critical and point out mistakes so they don't repeat it in the future.

yuti said...

If we cannot agree that Barcelona didn't offer him a renewal while nothing indicates the opposite and none of the parties has said or even suggested there was an offer and Eto'o's agent even denied it (while no Barcelona offical denied that denial), we can't start a proper discussion.

Zain said...

ssshhhh everyone !! dont oppose this rumour !! this is just meant to put pressure on inter to agree to a reasonable swap deal between eto'o and ibra. why cant you see that ?? they must agree now or risk seeing him scoring goals for their bitter rivals milan !

groga said...

Even if your fantasy story about him asking 12 million would be true, that still doesn't mean Barcelona wouldn't do an offer.

If Barcelona wouldn't do any counter-bids, Xavi wouldn't have renewed either last year cause he was also asking more than he got in the end. And there wouldn't be negotiations with Valdes anymore either. There's also bid and counter-bids in this kind of things.

Like yuti also says: just accept they don't want to renew him (because of sporting or personal reasons) and then you can start to discuss.

groga said...

"they must agree now or risk seeing him scoring goals for their bitter rivals milan "!


Since many people here think he can only score because he's well-surrounded at Barca, that's no argument for Inter to be afraid of... :D

SimonP said...

Plan A: Sell Eto'o buy a new first choice (Ibra)

Plan B: Renew Eto'o

Plan C: Buy a new striker and let Eto'o rot in the stands. I think a big part of his contract are based on bonuses and incentives.

I love Eto'o as much as the next guy but no one (including Messi) is bigger then the club. If he treats us like this then let's be the same towards him.

semko said...

Hah cristina in real for 94 mil. pounds!

James said...

@yuti & groga

Whatever dude, I didn't say we offered him a renewal. I said maybe our intention was to offer him a renewal but backed off when we realized what his demands were. You weren't at the meeting. Stop pretending you know exactly what happened. What if his agent said 'if you can't come back with an offer of over 10 don't bother offering.' If you offer and he rejects officially that only further lowers his value and weakens your bargaining position with other teams. Keeping other teams in the dark is also part of the negotiations.

Counter-bids? Ok why not offer him $1 per week then. You gotta start somewhere right? Negotiations aren't as simple as offering a lower amount and then meeting in the middle. If it worked as simply as that then every player would just start with ridiculous demands.

As far as my fantasy story of him demanding 12. Italian media were reporting that he wants 65 million over 5 years. If you believe any media reports why not believe that one.

Mast said...

wow, lots of hostility towards eto'o and barça based on "reports" or the absence of them.. people should understand that in reality we don't know much of what's really going on at the club, not everything apears in the press and not everything that does apear is correct..

james is right, we don't know wether or not there is e deal with milan, we don't know wether there has been an offer from barça, we don't know anything but the quotes we get from peolple (if they are correct) and they are often strategic rather than the absolute truth..

so relax and don't get hostile, we're all here in a common purpose..

James said...

You guys want to make everything a black & white issue. We either want to renew him or we don't. It's not that simple. Our goal is to improve our team. Whichever way to do that is our plan.

It might be exactly like SimonP said, renew Eto'o might be Plan B. That doesn't mean we don't want to renew him if we can't get a better replacement. Every time a club buys a new player it goes through that kind of a thought process. Will this improve my team, will this work financially, what are my alternatives, what can I fall back on.

This whole 'disrespecting' Eto'o business is just silly talk.

Mike said...

Is it legal for AC Milan to approach Eto'o like this without contacting Barcelona who owns the rights of the player?

kamikaze kontiki said...

Barça have put themselves in this position w.r.t Eto'o (not without good reason, it must be said) after their attempt to sell him last summer. He is in a strong bargaining position now and to be honest, I dont think he will be much worse off spending another year at the club albeit on the bench.

Whichever striker we buy is not going to have it easy adapting and given the way Eto'o's ego works, not being in the first team will make him even hungrier when he comes off the bench.

Its the price we have to pay for the chaos of last season. Its silly to talk of player's greed, all players are greedy. Its just the demands of the situation that have to be dealt with.

To me, the cheapest and surest option would be to renew Eto'o on an incentive based package for another 3 years and sell him somewhere around mid 2010 or 2011.

Failing that, Barça could just wait out the end of his contract and let him leave for free next season which I do not think will be the end of the world for us.

Transferring him this year seems the most difficult in view of the fact that another club will have to agree to his wage demands and therefore will try to extract a reduction in the transfer fee while Barça will be have to deal with a fresh face as the spearhead of the attack who wont provide us with all that Eto'o does.

It seems like whichever way Barça choose we are likely to incur a loss.

Guts said...

i agree with Mast.

people here can get too hostile towards Barca ! n even more so, against each other !

i think that maybe the reason why insideknowledge, our fellow cule has stopped sharing information with us. but i hope thats not the case ! so please, just stop this extremism !!

groga said...

"If you believe any media reports why not believe that one."


I look at the facts not at the media reports. The sum also included signing money by the way, which is not only for him but also for his agent. And you shouldn't base yourself on goal.com too much.

They didn't even make a counter-bid of 1 dollar a week (which he probably should accept, some would say, otherwise he's greedy and disloyal and doesn't show respect) cause fact is there hasn't been an offer, so Eto'o cannot have rejected anything yet.

If some reports are true, it's clear he's just scaring other clubs off (like he did last summer) with his wage demands so he can leave for free next summer. I'm quite sure he took that decision when Guardiola said he had to go in May last year. He just outsmarted the club.

We paid 20-25 million for him, so I don't think we did a bad thing by buying him even if he goes for free looking at what he gave us in return.

And another thing: if Xavi wants to double his wage, he's a true culé, if Valdes wants to quadruple his wage, he's a true culé, but if Barcelona not even starts renewal talks with Eto'o, the player is greedy. Sounds logical.

Marc4barca said...

it's funny how people diss zlatan for things like this but yet eto is an angel and it's all barca's fault. eto should of been gone last season it's his fault he didn't leave then he thought if he performed good barcelona would change their mind. Now u know he got an ego but ego doesn't matter now does it. now kamikaze is talking bout all players are greedy, that wasn't his stance a few days ago and eto will not sit on the bench and even if he does name one time he comes off the bench and scores a goal? this so called loyal person you all defend is putting his own club under serious pressure, he should just accept it and leave already. eto has always been a man who cares for himself, he just does a good job at hiding it. i can't remember a player who would want to stay at a club that doesn't want him, it's because he can't perform the same way anywhere else and he knows it, no messi and xavi = little goals for eto. he's a mercenary just like ashley cole cause if eto cant reach an agreement with most of the big clubs then he must be asking for impossible wages. real madrid has signed ronaldo as well, now it's the time to settle transfers and dealing with eto is making things worst. this guy sickens me to no end.

botia said...

etoo is a greedy person.he is obsessed with buying sports car.he just care about himself.his wife left him for his ego and bad temper.she lives in paris with her kids.this shows what a shameless person this eto'o is.he should be rot in bench this season so that he can go free next year but noone will take risk to pay him higher wages.if we don't sell a player we won't die.but if he sit on bench one summer his value and ego will be significantly dropped.he deserves hate.he is new figo.

sandro said...

yeah i agree with botia.eto'o is the figo of our current squad.i swear if i ever see him in barca next season i will just throw a pig head towards him.

groga said...

What a bunch of haters here :))) Eto'o all the way!!! Unless he rejects an 8 million renewal offer for four years. Barcelona screwed up, just admit it. And all players are greedy, even Xavi's renewal took months before the financial stuff was arranged. Xavi sickens you to? He is greedy too? He's the new Figo too?

At least Marc admits Barcelona want him out. Which is the key of all problems. Barcelona signed a contract, so they now will have to fulfil. As grown up people should. That's not about pressuring (as if Barça didn't pressure him to get out alst summer), that's just law... Footballers are in the end just employees, so they are entitled to the same rights as others. You're all far too emotional about this...

Anonymous said...

groga,dude are you african huh?
you belong to cameroon or nigeria?
i can see why u hate our catalan prides like xavi.xavi is no way greedy.he doesn't earn more than eto'o and don't forget xavi is already 30.our catalan players are no way like your african eto'o who can sell himself for money.admit it or not u support eto'o like anything just because of your skil color lol

kamikaze kontiki said...

Marc, please find the comment where I said we shouldn't get Zlatan because he is greedy.

As for the comment that you are referring too, it doesn't exactly extoll Eto'o's virtues, just points out that retaining him is till the best option as far as I can see.

I don't claim to be unbaised. I believe Eto'o suits our style of play best and this style of play is very important to me. I dont care if Eto'o doesn't score for the rest of his life without Messi, Xavi and co but I know that he helps them work their magic and allows them to assert their full potential.

Your Ibra-love really seems to colour every opinion you offer.
So tell me how is getting Ibra better?
Is he not going to ask for a greater salary than Eto'o?
Is he less of a mercenary ?
Is he already proven in Barça's system?
Has he managed anything to win anything against top opposition?
If he fails at Barça won't we be tied with an 80 million striker earning the highest salary in the world for the next 5 years?
With those wages will he be easier to get rid of than Eto'ó?

Don't talk about defending Eto'o, there is plenty of reasons why any Barça fan would be inclined to defend a player who has scored in 2 CL finals for us and is the 4th all time highest goal scorer for the club. Ibra needs as much support beacuse he has proved wonderfully valuable to Barça by ............... ???
dont see anything there yet !

Anonymous said...

Ungratefull Fans. In the five years Eto has been in Barca, he has not only scored tons of goals but help win 2 champion league twice.What did Barca win without him nothing, and the two years he was injured, what did they win ?nada. I hope he comes to Inter where real fans appreciate great players.

Marc4barca said...

that's the point i'm making kanikaze, this is the reason people say they don't like ibra but defend eto, i already know ibra gets paid alot and lets face it inter offered ibra that money to hold on too him yet he wants to leave in my eyes that's better than eto.

first things first u act like if we signed eto knowing he will be the best person for our position, u act like if signing players is too much of a risk, there is also no we prove who is good for barca system until they play, hleb is a prime example and henry is an example too 25mil for 3oyr old striker, didn't perform in his first season but look at him now, stop so scared and hope for the best eto wont be here forever. if i remember zlatan has played well in the milan derby and against juventus and roma, came off the bench the season before to score two goals and cling serie a yet again when he just came back from injury. ibra is everything eto is but more, taller much better technically and can drift to wing and cross a ball, eto can't even pass properly. there was no defending eto before the cl final, just goes to show how fickle fans can be. everyone would agree witth me that football is all about taking risk, wasn't it a risk to sign eto in the first place, wasn't it a risk when manu signed ronaldo who had only played in portugal before joining, isn't it a risk now that real madrid are spending 165 mil in 2players and could end up winning nothing, isn't it a risk when managers play players knowing one yellow card could keep dem out of an important matcht the following week? u get my point now, stop living in the past. eto helps xavi and messi do their magic? there is no eto in the spain squad, there is no eto in the argentina squad and they still play the same way, eto does nothing but feed off messi and xavi, famous quote from eto during the betis match "bring on messi and i will score".

anon your an idiot to believe eto injury is why barca didn't win la liga. if i remember ronaldinho was injured also, we only had bojan to fill the void, henry wasn't ready yet, yaya was playing injured, messi was injured, defense was poor, manager couldn't control the players, all these things play a part so don't use that as an excuse eto is not the focal point of barcelona messi scored more than him this season. as for the the cl victories, sure he scored in both finals but they weren't fantastic performances, henrik larsson and iniesta were the true heroes of those games and eto scored against almunia who was horrible in that game, he allowed belleti a man who had never scored before then get past him. he scored against van der saar the highlight of his career after beating vidic i can't take that away from him but i'm not going to let one highlight change my mind cause he'll do crap 10 games after before doing it again.

Martin Engelin said...

Why are everyone so affraid of buying Ibrahimovic? Everyone is talking ike Eto'o is the most amazing striker there ever was, well he's not. Ofcourse he is a great player, and yes he fits in Barcelona, but with his contract it's best to sell him this season. Hopefully he isn't such a bitch that he refuse any other offers on him just too get a shitload of money next year when his contract expires.

Barcelona is the best team in the world, and Ibra won't change that. Please don't be affraid of trying new things. My dream for next season is this:

----Ibrahimovic----
Ribery ------ Messi
----Iniesta--Xavi----

Amagine the speed on the flanks, and Ibra in the mittle who will score over and over again. No team will have a chance.

kamikaze kontiki said...

Since with your previous comment you accused me of hypocrisy let me point out that I have been saying that Eto'o is the best for our system of play before and after the CL final.

As for Spain and Argentina I think they have other players who fill in a similar sort of role and as far I can see neither of them use any player similar in style or attributes to Ibra. And Btw, have you ever seen Xavi or Messi play for Mallorca or Cameroon ?

We signed Eto'o for 24 mill. he wasn't paid an astronomical salary when we signed him. Ibra has to be signed for 70-80 mill as the highest paid player in the world. Are you saying that the risk involved is the same? (And please don't start harping on about greed, being the highest paid is not a criticism of Ibra, just a measure of how expensive he is for us)

Btw, Eto'o was not just the player who equalised in 2006, he was also the one who got Lehmann sent off, and I also remember him turning Sol Campbell and shooting, I would say he was Barça's most threatening player in that final.

You can make your case for Ibra, you dont have to repeatedly disrespect Eto'o, his preformances or his contributions to Barça.

Ultimately it comes down to what you want to see from Barça. I forsee a return to the sort of football we played with Kluivert upfront. And let me tell you, that era was when I started supporting Barça but what I have seen over the last year is for me an improvement over anything we have done before and while you may see it being repeated with Zlatan, I dont. It has also proved successful so I don't see the reason people are so eager to change it.

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