Anzhi Makhachkala

Anzhi Makhachkala have announced that they want to add Robin Van Persie (Arsenal) and Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea) to their roster. Roberto Carlos (Anzhi Makhachkala's interim coach) made the announcement which was subsequently published on Sportingnews.com.

Roberto Carlos also talked about signing Nene from Paris St. Germain and adding more people to Anzhi's roster. It appears that Anzhi Makhachkala has a lot of money to spend in its shopping spree for players.

Suleyman Kerimov (Anzhi Makhachkala's owner and billionaire businessman) and Roberto Carlos have also expressed a desire to sign Neymar, Maicon, Gattuso, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho to the club. Anzhi has signed Roberto Carlos, Samuel Eto'o, Diego Tardelli, Yuri Zhirkov and Jucilei Da Silva in the past.

Why is Anzhi Makhachkala in its current shopping spree for players from other European clubs? The first reason is that Anzhi (a club founded in 1991) wants to insert itself gradually in the big leagues of European leagues.

The second reason is that Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The significance of Russia hosting the World Cup is that many clubs in the country (including Anzhi) wants to reap the benefits of the historic event which will unfold.

The last reason is that in order to be a powerhouse, a new generation of players need to receive training. The older generation of European football stars can train an emerging generation of Russian football athletes to carry the sport in Russia towards the next generation.

It remains to be seen whether Van Persie and Anelka will respond to the offer from Roberto Carlos and Anzhi Makhachkala.

Roberto Carlos (Anzhi Makhachkala Interim Coach) has expressed his intention to sign Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho with the emerging European giant.

The reason for signing Neymar is to give the Brazilian player an opportunity on a European Soccer Team.

The reason for Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo is for Anzhi Makhachkala to acquire players with experience with the intention of preparing the team for the future. Suleiman Keymov (Anzhi Makhachkala owner) is willing to pay the high price for players (such as Neymar and Ronaldo) as demonstrated in the signing of Samuel Eto’o and Roberto Carlos.

Roberto Carlos (who was the object of a racist attack in Russia) was questioned by Punta Pelota (and published subsequently in ESPN Soccernet) about Eto'o. Roberto Carlos said that Eto’o was “well treated” in Russia and there have been no incidents.

Anzhi Makhachkala has the possibility of discussing the monetary terms of Neymar’s contract with Santos, including the release clause. The only inconvenience is that Chelsea, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are competing for Neymar during the January Transfer Window.

Anzhi Makhachkala may emerge as the winner in signing Neymar, since Chelsea refuses to deal with the release clause stipulated by Santos. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are still debating whether to sign Neymar.

Anzhi Makhachkala would be a great opportunity for Neymar if Real Madrid and FC Barcelona were unable to sign him. Anzhi will have another player with potential on its roster who will contribute to the emergence of a new powerhouse in European Football.

The possibility of Ronaldo and Mourinho leaving Real Madrid are close to none since they remain popular with the club. It would have to be a seeing is believing concept concerning Ronaldo and Mourinho at Anzhi.

The emerging Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala announced that Roberto Carlos will replace Gadzhi Gadzhiev as their new coach. The reason for the replacement has been the dismal performance of the club under Gadzhiev.

Roberto Carlos will remain as one of Anzhi's principal players in addition to his coaching duties. Roberto Carlos will also be training Samuel Eto'o and other players of the club.

Roberto Carlos declared that (eventually) he would like to be Anzhi's President which appears to be a great idea. Roberto Carlos expressed his hopes of being a caretaker coach who could be replaced by Fabio Capello.

An article published in the website of Univision declared that the appointment of Roberto Carlos reflects an act of desperation on the part of Anzhi. The Univision article commented that the reason is that Anzhi Makhachkala is looking for results for the next Russian Premier League and UEFA Champions League season.

I think that the appointment of Roberto Carlos as coach reflects a desire by Anzhi to prepare the team (and Russian Football) for the future. The preparation reflects the growing seriousness of Anzhi and Russia in preparing for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in that nation.

Anzhi (as well as Russia and the Russian Premier League) are signing players who are in their 30's who are way past their prime in football. The purpose is to train players in their 20's (eventually) to reach their potential.

It is expected that with the experience of seasoned players from other countries, Russia will be able to forge a new path in International Football. I will be one of the writers to predict that (barring any unexpected circumstances) Russia may (eventually) be a powerhouse in European (as well as) International Football.

Anzhi Makhachkala (the emerging European team from Russia) is expressing an interest in acquiring Inter Milan right-back Maicon during the January transfer window. Anzhi has made Maicon a top priority after signing Samuel Eto'o this year.

Russian sports reporting agency Itasportpress announced this news, which was published on Goal.com. Maicon has been linked with a transfer to Real Madrid in the past, but it has never materialized.

Maicon's contract with Inter Milan is set to expire at the end of the 2012-2013 Serie A season. The contract also has an exit clause in which the club acquiring Maicon would have to pay Inter Milan just over $20 million.

Anzhi Makhachkala is owned by Suleiman Kerimov, who has the money to purchase players for his club. Anzhi has signed players such as Roberto Carlos, Yuri Zhirkov, Jucilei da Silva and Diego Tardelli to the club.

Anzhi has also been linked with attempting to sign Frank Lampard from Chelsea and Steven Gerrard from Liverpool. It remains to be seen what will transpire in the latest saga from Anzhi Makhachkala.

Aznhi Makhachkala (one of the Russian clubs emerging in world football) has expressed an interest in Gennaro Gattuso who is the AC Milan midfielder. The news (as reported in Sky Sports and Footballpress.net) was confirmed by Andrea D'Amico (Gattuso's agent) in an interview with Sportitalia.

The interest by Anzhi Makhachkala in Gattuso comes after the signing of Samuel Eto'o and Roberto Carlos to the club. Anzhi appears to have wanted Gattuso since the beginning of 2011.

Gattuso's contract with AC Milan is due to expire after the 2011-2012 season. Anzhi has been involved in talks with Gattuso's agents but there have been no decisions made concerning any possible transfer.

It is also expected that there could be conversations between Adriano Galliani (AC Milan Vice President) concerning any transactions between Anzhi and Gattuso's agent. I often wonder if Suleiman Kerimov (Anzhi's owner) would talk with Silvio Berlusconi (AC Milan's owner) but that is not a possibility.

What could happen if Gennaro Gattuso were to sign with Anzhi Makhachkala? Russia is not always an easy country to play international football, as witnessed by Roberto Carlos.

In March 2011, Anzhi Makhachkala played a match against Zenit St. Petersburg with Roberto Carlos present. One of the spectators in the match threw a banana at Roberto Carlos in a racist and anti-sport spirit.

While Russia is taking strides to reduce (or eliminate) racism in its international football matches, Gattuso had problems during the UEFA Champions League match between AC Milan and the Tottenham Hotspur in February 2011.

Gattuso grabbed Joe Jordan (Tottenham Hotspur Assistant Manager) by the neck after the two got into an altercation. Gattuso then proceeded to head-butt Jordan and was forced to apologize.

UEFA later handed Gattuso a four match ban for his behavior during the match. It remains to be seen whether Gattuso will be at Russia and for how long.

Gadzhi Gadzhiev, coach of the Dagestan-based FC Anzhi Makhachkala, defended club owner Suleiman Kerimov's decision to sign Samuel Eto'o and Roberto Carlos. Gadzhiev made his declarations in an interview with UEFA about the club and its future.

Gadzhiev said that FC Anzhi Makhachkala looks for players with personal qualities as well as football skills. Gadzhiev continued to defend the organization, stating that the club had not made mistakes when it signed their newest players.

Gadzhiev also talked about the future ambitions of FC Anzhi Makhachkala, with regards to the UEFA Europa League and the Russian Premier League. This has been a transformative year, allowing FC Anzhi Makhachkala to unexpectedly rise to its current position.

The first step for FC Anzhi Makhachkala is to make sure that its rise does not eventually spiral out of control. FC Anzha Makhachkala should also find ways to make the club, located in Dagestan, palatable to people who judge the club solely by the area it lives in.

As reported in the Jerusalem Post, Dagestan is the home of separatists, with gunmen responsible for the killing of one of the area's leaders. Russia is regularly a victim of violence and racism instigated by hooligans.

The three most notable examples of hooligan behavior was a person offering a banana to Roberto Carlos, a person throwing a banana at Carlos and the riots and disturbances during a match between Zenit St. Petersburg and FC Anzhi Makhachkala.

Samuel Eto'o, the four-time African footballer of the year, has reportedly signed a mind boggling deal with Russian football club Anzhi Makhachkala. According to The Los Angeles Times, the deal will pay Eto'o $14.2 million per year over three season.

The deal more or less propels Eto'o into the echelons of football’s elite of highest paid players. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the only two other players in that wage bracket, earning $17 million and $15 million respectively.

What Eto'o will earn in sponsorship and/or endorsements deals could be well over $5 million a year. Thus this could bring his total earnings to something in the region of $50 million.

Eto'o, a Cameroonian denizen, completed his move from elite Italian club Internazionale after he passed his medical on Wednesday.  Anzhi will pay Internazionale, also known as Inter Milan, a sum of $30.3 million, according to the AFP.

Eto'o has played for some of the crème de crème of football clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and the aforementioned Internazionale.

At Real Madrid, Eto'o was too young to play for the senior team so instead played for Real Madrid B. That season, Real Madrid B were relegated to the third tier, Segunda Division B. Eto’o's status as a non-European Union player meant that he was ineligible to play in the Segunda league, so he was loaned out to CD Leganes.

A year later, Eto'o was loaned out to Mallorca but signed a permanent deal with the club at the end of that season. In his second season at Mallorca, he scored 11 goals and thus began garnering attention throughout the Spanish league. When Eto'o departed Mallorca for FC Barcelona two years later, he left with the record of being their all-time domestic league scorer.

It was at FC Barcelona that Eto'o came to prominence, and it was there that Eto'o earned a reputation for being a ruthless striker with a footballing brain that could rival any forward in the world. During his tenure at FC Barcelona, he scored a total of 130 goals in 200 appearances.

Eto'o is set to make his debut for Anzhi on Saturday when they play FC Rostov.