Barcelona and Inter close to Eto’o-Ibrahimovic deal
By DPA, IANSFriday, July 17, 2009
MADRID - Barcelona and Inter Milan are close to a deal to swap Samuel Eto’o for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, according to Spanish news reports Friday.
Catalan paper Sport claims that it is “a closed deal”, whilst Mundo Deportivo, AS and Marca prefer to be more cautious.
Sport claims Barca president Joan Laporta and technical secretary Txiki Begiristain met in Milan Thursday night with Inter owner Massimo Moratti, and that it was agreed that Ibrahimovic would move to Barca in exchange for 40 million euros (56.41 million dollars) plus Eto’o and the loan of midfielder Alexander Hleb for one season.
Barca are keen to offload Eto’o, despite his 35 goals last season. Coach Josep Guardiola has given the explosive African an extra week’s holiday, in order for the club to arrange his sale.
The contract of Eto’o finishes in June 2010 and he has refused Barca’s offer of a two-year extension.
Neither does Guardiola want Hleb signed from Arsenal a year ago, in his squad.
Barca Wednesday signed left-back Maxwell from Inter for 4.5 million euros. They Thursday had a 42 million euro offer for David Villa turned down by Valencia.
