Samuel Eto’o takes the money and runs to Russia

The world’s highest-paid soccer player now plays for a club that is only 20 years old, has never won anything and that no one outside the beleaguered and violence-ridden Dagestan region in Russia has ever heard of, let alone seen play.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o, formerly of Barcelona and Inter Milan, has taken the money and run off to join FC Anzhi Makhachkala of the Russian Premier League.

Who could blame him? Eto’o is 30 and on the downward slope of a superlative career that has seen him win European Champions League titles with Barcelona in 2006 and 2009, among many other honors.

If a Russian oil mogul named Suleiman Kerimov is willing to pay him a reported $29 million a year after taxes on a three-year contract, as London’s Financial Times indicated, why not grab the gold and hope for the best?

Inter Milan was thinking much the same thing when it agreed to terms with Anzhi Makhachkala that will net the debt-laden Italian Serie A team $36 million.

“There are other valuable players in the team and we’ll start building again,” Inter Milan Coach Gian Piero Gasperini said of losing the prolific Eto’o, who scored 37 goals last season.

Galaxy acquires Irish international striker Robbie Keane

The Galaxy on Monday officially announced that it has acquired Irish international forward Robbie Keane from Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League.

To make room for the 31-year-old Keane, who will join the Galaxy as a designated player after his U.S. work visa is approved, the club will have to shed one of its current three designated players.

The belief is that with David Beckham and Landon Donovan virtually untouchable, it will be Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel who is traded or released.

Angel, 35, has scored only three goals and assisted on one in 22 games for the Galaxy this season.

Keane, a 14-year professional who has played 108 games for Ireland and scored a record 51 goals for his country, is the 10th-highest goal scorer in Premier League history.

His playing resume includes stints with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Coventry City, Inter Milan, Leeds United, Tottenham, Liverpool, Celtic and West Ham United.

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said he needed a proven striker as the club moves toward the MLS playoffs and pursues the CONCACAF Champions League title.

“I have followed his career and have always respected his ability as a competitor and a goal scorer,” Arena said of Keane in a statement released by the Galaxy.

“I believe that he brings qualities in and around the penalty area that we have been lacking.”

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— Grahame L. Jones

Photo: Robbie Keane. Credit: Georgi Licovski / EPA

Fired U.S. soccer coach Bob Bradley finalist to be Egypt’s coach

Bob Bradley, fired as coach of the U.S. national soccer team July 28 and replaced the next day by Juergen Klinsmann, is one of three finalists for the vacant position as Egypt’s national team coach.

Also under consideration by the Egyptian Football Assn. (EFA) are Colombia’s Francisco “Paco” Maturana and Serbia’s Zoran Filipovic.

“The EFA board will meet with the three coaches this week to pick one of them,” the EFA announced on its website on Sunday.

Egypt has won the last three African championships — in 2006, 2008 and 2010 — but its failure to qualify for the 2012 tournament led to the June 6 dismissal of Hassan Shehata as coach.

Under Shehata, the Pharaohs climbed to their highest-ever position in the FIFA world rankings when they rose to ninth in 2010. Egypt currently is ranked 36th.

The EFA has been casting about for a successor, but has reportedly been rebuffed by Portuguese coach Nelo Vingada and talks have broken down with French coach Herve Renard.

If he is named to the post, Bradley, 53, would become the first American-born coach to take charge of a foreign national team since Steve Sampson coached Costa Rica.

Bradley was coach of the U.S. when it defeated Egypt, 3-0, in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa.

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—Grahame L. Jones

Photo: Bob Bradley. Credit: Brian Snyder / Reuters