10 most expensive players aged 30 plus

#3 Samuel Eto’o - £22m, Inter Milan to Anzhi Makhachkala, 2011

Samuel Eto'o in action for Anzhi

Where today’s big money in a lower level league comes mostly from China, rewind a few years and the big money was all coming from oil-rich Anzhi Makhachkala, a Russian side based in the Republic of Dagestan. Purchased by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov in January 2011, the club immediately went on a spending spree that culminated in the purchase of the then 30-year-old Samuel Eto’o, signed for £22m from Inter after a season that saw him score 37 goals.

If the move sounded like a strange one at the time, then it made all the sense in the world when it was revealed that Eto’o was being paid a world-record salary of around £350k a week. Eto’o’s good form largely continued in Russia too despite a lot of issues, including having to live and train in Moscow and then fly into Dagestan for home games due to the political issues in the Republic. Eto’o scored 13 goals in 23 appearances for the club in his first season, and then hit 21 in 44 in the following one.

Unfortunately for Anzhi – and their highly paid players – though, Kerimov decided to pull the plug on the huge budget in the summer of 2013 due to a lack of success despite spending so much money. This meant the big names – including Eto’o – became available on the transfer market and a move to Chelsea for an undisclosed fee followed, where he was labelled an “old man” by Jose Mourinho despite playing generally well.