Samuel Eto'o Signs £7million 1-Year Deal To Join Chelsea

Chelsea is to sign Samuel Eto'o on a stunning £7million one-year deal on Thursday after admitting defeat in the pursuit of Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.

According to a source, the 32-year-old Cameroon forward, Eto'o is taking a huge pay cut from the £17m a year that made him the world's best paid footballer at Anzhi Makhachkala and will sign on a free transfer.

However, Anzhi sweetened the deal by giving Eto'o a multi-million-pound lump sum to get him off their wage bill.

Eto'o arrived at London's St. Pancras station on Wednesday night, where he was pictured with super-agent Pini Zahavi, and is due to have a medical at Chelsea's Cobham training ground before finalising terms after his advisers held talks on Wednesday.

Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, an Eto'o admirer, turned to his Plan B after United steadfastly refused to sell Rooney.

There is a kinship between the Chelsea coach and his new signing.

Eto'o has never been short of an opinion. At Barcelona he took a microphone on live television and called his former club Real Madrid to celebrate Barcelona's 2005 Spanish title; he dared to publicly attack Ronaldinho's work-rate and justifiably threatened to leave the field when racially abused from the stands in Zaragoza.

It is no surprise that his first exchange with Mourinho was a heated one.

In the tunnel at Stamford Bridge in 2005 when Chelsea beat Barcelona in the Champions League, a melee followed between players, and Eto'o was vocal in his opinion of Chelsea's tactics. Mourinho liked the striker's feistiness.

"I liked the fact he was worked up after a defeat," recalled Mourinho.

That fire was put to good use when the two joined forces at Inter Milan where Eto'o was the spearhead for Mourinho's Treble-winning side.