Barcelona have made an agreement with Inter Milan to sign striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in exchange for Samuel Eto’o plus a fee of around £35 million and a one year loan deal for Alex Hleb.
Both teams won their respective leagues last season, but with heavy spending rivals Real Madrid making waves in the transfer market, Barcelona are now looking to make their first big signing.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta said that all the remains is for the players to agree terms. “The signing depends on Ibrahimovic, on Eto’o and all parties.”
The agreement seems a remarkable imbalance: given Manchester City’s bid of approximately £20m for 28 year old Samuel Eto’o, some may argue that the combined fee for Ibrahimovic, just one year younger, is highly inflated and not justifiable.
Inter boss Jose Mourinho describes the Ibrahimovic as “the most talented player he has ever worked with” and “better than Cristiano Ronaldo”. Ibrahimovic has impressed at Europe’s premier clubs, which boasts spells at Ajax and Juventus after beginning his career in his native Malmo.
However, many remain unconvinced by the Swede, despite finishing top scorer in Seria A last season with 20 goals and a goals-to-games ratio higher than 1 in 2 in the last two seasons, due to his failure to shine in European competition In contrast, Eto’o has a proven track record on every level, scoring more than 100 goals in five seasons at Barca as well as goals in two Champions League finals.
But the Cameroon international, whose contract expires in 12 months time, had been strongly linked with moves away from the Champions League winners, notably Manchester City before they ran out of patience at delaying tactics.
Another player the Catalans are being strongly linked with is Valencia’s David Villa, but they may well face competition from Real Madrid and Liverpool.
This is the second deal arranged between the two clubs this year, as full back Maxwell has also joined Barcelona for £3.9 million.
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