Recently, all Uzbek internet forums were full of rumors about FC Barcelona’s striker Samuel Eto’o coming to Uzbekistan to sign a contract with Kuruvchi, a leading football team in Uzbek premier league. Today, at least the half of the rumor is turned out to be truth - Samuel Eto’o escorted with other three representative of FC Barcelona has arrived to Tashkent at 6:30 am on local time.

According to FC Kuruvchi’s official website, Eto’o will visit Uzbekistan Football Federation office and meet with management of UFF. The FC Barcelona delegation will also visit sights of Tashkent, especially historical complex ‘Khazrati-Imam’. During the second half of the day, Eto’o will give a press-conference for mass media representatives in the hotel InterContinental-Tashkent, where he is staying during his visit.

Rumors have spread that Kuruvchi paid 40 million USD to Barcelona for transfer. For Uzbek sport, it is an unbelievably high price (with average salary in the country being $80-100). However, with sponsors like Zeromax, Uzneftegaz, UzGazOil, FC Kuruvchi can afford such transfers.

UK’s Telegraph quotes Kuruvchi’s sporting director Bahtiyor Babayev saying that Samuel Eto’o will sign a contract with Kuruvchi 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… The defining moment of the transfer was not money, but the friendly mutual relations between the management of our club and Barcelona. The personal friendship between presidents of the clubs has noticeably lowered the transfer fee.

However, they also quote a spokesperson from the Spanish club, who proved that everything was nothing more than rumors.

Nobody at the club knows anything about this and I really don’t think it is very likely.

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Just noticed that Telegraph misspelled Uzbekistan