Anzhi Makhachkala will put in audacious bids for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi when their contracts expire, Anzhi coach Roberto Carlos has reportedly said.
The big-spending Russian club has limitless ambitions, and since joining Anzhi a year ago Roberto Carlos has frequently spoken about attracting football's biggest names.
Ronaldo's contract with Real Madrid runs through 2015, while Messi is with Barcelona until at least 2016.
“We will certainly try to bring them here [Anzhi]”, Roberto Carlos told Spain’s Radio Marca on Tuesday.
“Leo is currently the best player in the world. What he has done at Barcelona, and continues to do, shows this,” he said.
Cristiano Ronaldo was Real Madrid’s most important player, he added. “But I don’t have a preference for either of the two.”
Their fearful price tags are unlikely to put off Anzhi's billionaire owner Suleiman Kerimov, who reportedly made Samuel Eto'o the world's best-paid player with a 20 million euro-per-year deal when he was signed from Inter Milan in August.
Roberto Carlos moved to Anzhi in February 2011 on a two-year contract and played regularly in 2011, but was dropped from Anzhi’s Russian Premier League squad last week.
His role at the Dagestan-based club extends far beyond playing and advising the coaches, acting as a conduit between Kerimov and the football world when acquiring new players.
