Eto'o agrees eye-watering £300,000 a week deal

Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto’o is set to join Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala - on an incredible salary of £300,000 a week.

The monopoly-money wages will, unsurprisingly, make the 30-year-old Cameroon marksman the highest-paid player in the world.
His wages will dwarf the earnings of Lionel Messi at Barcelona and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.
You'll be staggered to learn that Eto’s representative Claudio Vigorelli has confirmed that the striker has agreed personal terms.

"We have almost reached an agreement," he said. "Now we hope that the clubs agree.”
Eto’o smashed 34 goals last season to fire Inter to a European and domestic Treble in 2010, having done the same the year before with Spanish giants Barcelona.
Cash-strapped Inter, who made a £65million loss last year, are now set to agree a £32m fee for the player, who had been linked with a potential swap deal involving Manchester City's wantaway striker Carlos Tevez.

Swansea look to bolster forward line again with free swoop for France veteran Trezeguet

Swansea are lining up a move for veteran France striker David Trezeguet.
The scorer of the decisive golden goal at Euro 2000 is a free agent after leaving Spanish side Hercules in the summer.
Trezeguet has been strongly linked with Nice but Swansea could be ready to strike, according to French daily L'Equipe.

Brendan Rodgers has been in the market for strikers this summer since losing on-loan Fabio Borini - a star of last year's promotion-winning campaign - to Parma.

The Swans boss has already bolstered his front-line with the captures of £3.5million Danny Graham from Watford and £1.75m Leroy Lita from Middlesbrough.
But whereas that pair are relatively unproven at the highest level the 33-year-old former Juventus and Monaco hotshot would add valuable experience and star quality for Swansea's Premier League bow.
Trezeguet spent just one season in Spain, scoring 12 goals in 31 games, having played for the Old Lady for a decade. He was repeatedly linked with Arsenal throughout his time in Turin but a move never materialised.
The striker has won 71 caps for France, scoring 34 goals, the most famous of which secured victory over Italy in extra-time as Les Bleus became European Champions.

Tottenham face tough task to land Athletic Bilbao's Fernando Llorente

Tottenham Hotspur face an uphill task if they are to sign the Spain forward Fernando Llorente from Athletic Bilbao, with his club unwilling to accept an offer that does not trigger the €36m (£31.6m) buy-out clause in his contract.

The Spurs manager Harry Redknapp is anxious to reinforce his attacking options after seeing Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko register just 18 league goals between them for the club last season.
Llorente, who scored 19 goals in 2010-11 to help propel Athletic into a sixth-place finish and the Europa League, has been a long-time target for Spurs, whose interest was intensified once Mirko Vucinic moved from Roma to Juventus last month. Preliminary talks took place with Bilbao last weekend, although the Basque club said they would be reluctant sellers of their most prized asset. Presidential elections were held over the summer with Fernando Garcia Macua duly replaced by Josu Urrutia and the new incumbent understandably keen not to start his tenure at the club by selling Llorente, such an iconic player, who is contracted to the club until 2013.
That may force Spurs to make a move for Villarreal's Giuseppe Rossi, with Redknapp keen to bring in a forward before allowing any of his current options to depart. Keane has yet to attract interest, but Stoke City have made a formal offer for Crouch and team-mate Wilson Palacios, though major obstacles still need to be hurdled before either deal could be completed.
A fee of around £8m has been agreed for Palacios, 27, though the midfielder's wage demands may yet prove to be out of Stoke's reach. The club have yet to hold talks with Crouch, 30, with the salary potentially on offer over what would have to be a four-year contract likely to prove a similar stumbling block.
The Stoke chairman, Peter Coates, said he was awaiting a response from Spurs over what amounts to a £20m offer for both players. "We've made our last bid," said Coates. "The ball is in their court. We shall not be negotiating from where we are. The last conversation I had with Spurs, we had not agreed anything. We'll see what happens, but we haven't got any further."Tottenham, who have held talks with Real Madrid over the possible signing of Lassana Diarra, could yet raise further money by selling their former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas to Fulham, where he would be reunited with the former Spurs manager Martin Jol.

Barton in talks over £60k a week move

Stoke boss Tony Pulis is in talks with Newcastle’s Joey Barton about a shock move to the ambitious Potters.
Pulis met with Barton’s agent on Wednesday and wants to tie up personal terms to land the controversial midfielder for the big Premier League kick-off this weekend.
The straight-talking Welshman thinks he can harness Barton’s talents and lively personality and make him a big plus for his side as they look to build on last season’s successes by making an impact on the Europa League.
Stoke have put together a personal package that would see the 28-year-old receive around £60,000-a-week for the next four seasons.

International friendly wrap: Germany, Italy rise to occasion

Germany edged Brazil in a five-goal thriller while Italy defeated world champions Spain in Wednesday's international friendly action.
The repeat of the 2002 FIFA World Cup final between Germany and Brazil saw a quiet first-half in Stuttgart, but the match exploded into life in the last 30 minutes as the hosts won 3-2.
Bastian Schweinsteiger's 61st-minute penalty put Germany into the lead, and six minutes later highly rated Borussia Dortmund 19-year-old Mario Gotze doubled the Germans' lead.
Brazil striker Robinho quickly equalised from the penalty spot, but Andre Schurrle responded with 10 minutes to play as Germany restored their two-goal advantage.
An injury time strike from in-demand forward Neymar brought Brazil within one goal, but Joachim Loew's side held on for a deserved victory.
In Bari, Alberto Aquilani's winner with six minutes to play saw Italy surprise Spain 2-1.
Riccardo Montolivo gave the hosts an 11th minute lead but Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso equalised from the penalty spot eight minutes before half-time.
With both sides fielding strong teams, an exciting second half was to follow before Aquilani's late strike.
France extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches with a 1-1 draw against Chile, although they would have won in Montpellier if it were not for Nicolas Cordova's equaliser with 14 minutes to play.
Leeds attacker Robert Snodgrass struck the winner in Scotland's 2-1 win over Denmark in Glasgow, while goals to Tim Cahill and Robbie Kruse gave Australia a win by the same scoreline against Wales in Cardiff.
The Republic of Ireland and Croatia played out a scoreless stalemate in Dublin, Sweden edged Ukraine 1-0, Switzerland beat Liechtenstein 2-1, Romania struggled to a 1-0 win in San Marino and Poland won by the same scoreline against Georgia.
Slovakia won 2-1 in Austria, Turkey were too good for Estonia 3-0, Oman drew with Bahrain 1-1, Malta beat the Central African Republic 2-1 and Slovenia and Belgium played out a scoreless draw.
Japan accounted for South Korea 3-0, China beat Jamaica 1-0 courtesy of a Zhao Peng strike, while Kazakhstan drew 1-1 with 10-man Syria.
Inter Milan's Goran Pandev scored the winner for Macedonia in their 1-0 win over Azerbaijan, Russia beat Serbia 1-0 in Moscow and Lithuania smashed 10-man Armenia 3-0.
Centre-back Ilyan Stoyanov's own goal handed Belarus a 1-0 victory over Bulgaria, Ivory Coast held on for a thrilling 4-3 victory over Israel while Finland beat Latvia 2-0 away from home.
Cyprus midfielder Sinisa Dobrasinovic scored in the 90th minute to complete his nation's come-from-behind 3-2 win over Moldova.
Albania beat Montenegro 3-2, Hungary had four different goalscorers in their 4-0 rout of Iceland in Budapest, and Norway accounted for the Czech Republic 3-0.
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece and Kuwait and North Korea played scoreless draws, while South Africa beat Burkina Faso 3-0 and Zimbabwe triumphed over Zambia 2-0.
Gambia were 3-0 winners against the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal lost 2-0 at home to Morocco, Botswana defeated Kenya 1-0, Gabon drew with Guinea 1-1 and Niger and Togo took part in a six-goal thriller which ended 3-3.

Portugal had little trouble beating Luxembourg, with Helder Postiga, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fabio Coentrao and Hugo Almeida (twice) finding the net in a 5-0 thumping.