Yesh A Mesh

Prepare for news concerning perhaps the most bizarre potential transfer in recent memory. The word on the street is that Barcelona and Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o shall be signing for Uzbekistan club Kuruvchi by the end of the week, having landed at the world famous Tashkent International Airport this morning. Plenty of pictures of Eto’o and three Barce representatives arriving have been posted on the club’s official website, fuelling rumours of a sensational transfer coup for not only the club, but also the country as a whole. I imagine most people think that Uzbekistan is a made-up country, famous only by association with everyone’s favourite foreign TV correspondent Borat, but no, it’s very much real.

As the old saying goes though, when something sounds too good to be true, it’s probably because it is…like that stripper who’s phone number turned out to just be the local Chinese takeaway. There is almost certainly zero chance of Eto’o actually signing for Kuruvchi, despite the impressive fact that they finished second in their national league last year.

You see, over the last few years several Barcelona players have been invited to Uzbekistan as part of an agreement by the Spanish club to help the development of football in the country formerly ruled by the Soviet Union. It would seem therefore that Kuruvchi have seized the opportunity for some great free publicity by insisting transfer negotiations with Eto’o are ongoing, fuelled by reports from Spain that the striker is surplus to requirements at the Nou Camp.

The club’s sporting director, Bahtier Babayev, is still keen to insist that: “Eto'o will arrive in Tashkent on Thursday and he will sign a contract with our club, at least up until the end of 2008. The term of the contract will depend on our performance in the AFC Champions League. We will play Saipa in the quarter-finals and Eto'o is our main purchase before the knockout stage of the tournament.” Barce have obviously been quick to rubbish these claims, but listening to Babayev, it sounds like a deal has already been done.

Surely somewhere in the world someone slightly more prestigious than Kuruvchi must fancy having Eto’o in their squad next season?!