Anzhi Makhachkala became one of football’s strangest modern projects because it tried to build a European contender almost instantly from one of the sport’s least expected places. Backed by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov, the Dagestan club signed Samuel Eto’o from Inter Milan in 2011 on a deal widely reported to make him the highest-paid footballer in the world. The project also brought Roberto Carlos, Yuri Zhirkov, Guus Hiddink, Lassana Diarra, Willian, and other major names into Anzhi’s orbit. For a brief period, Makhachkala was not just a Russian Premier League outpost. It was a test case for how far money could move football’s center of gravity.
How Anzhi Makhachkala Became a Superclub Experiment
Anzhi was not built like a normal rising power. The club was founded in 1991 and had spent much of its early life moving between levels of Russian football before returning to the top flight in 2009. Its sudden transformation began in January 2011, when Kerimov took control of the club and poured money into a project that aimed far beyond domestic survival.
The geography made the project even more unusual. Anzhi represented Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus. Because of security concerns, the squad lived and trained near Moscow, then flew roughly 1,250 miles to Makhachkala for home matches. That meant the club was both a Dagestani symbol and a Moscow-based football operation, a contradiction that made the project feel ambitious, fragile, and logistically complicated from the start.
The first wave of attention came with Roberto Carlos, who joined in 2011 and gave the project immediate credibility. But Eto’o changed the scale. He arrived from Inter after winning Champions League titles with Barcelona and Inter, and Associated Press reporting at the time described the expected contract as worth $28.8 million per season. Other reports placed the salary around €20 million per year. Either way, Anzhi had turned a club from the edge of the European football map into a place where one of the world’s most accomplished forwards could become the highest-paid player in the game.
Samuel Eto’o and the Squad That Made the Project Feel Real
Eto’o mattered because he was not just a famous name nearing retirement. He was still an elite forward when he made the move. In the season before joining Anzhi, he had led Inter with 37 goals in all competitions, and he arrived with the authority of a player who had won the Champions League three times. His signing told the football world that Anzhi was not simply collecting recognizable veterans. The club was willing to pay for players who could still change matches.
The project expanded around him. Yuri Zhirkov arrived from Chelsea. Guus Hiddink, already respected in Russian football because of his work with the national team, became manager in 2012. Later, Anzhi added players such as Lassana Diarra and Willian, creating a squad that briefly looked capable of challenging Russia’s established powers and making a serious push in Europe. The 2012–13 season was the peak: Anzhi finished third in the Russian Premier League, reached the Russian Cup final, and played into the Europa League knockout rounds before losing to Newcastle United.
That period is what keeps the story from being only a spending cautionary tale. For a short time, Anzhi had sporting substance. The club had elite players, a famous manager, full stands in Makhachkala, and enough results to suggest that the idea might become more than a headline. It also gave Dagestan visibility through football at a level the region had rarely experienced. Anzhi’s home matches carried local meaning even as the club’s daily operations were shaped by the unusual reality of training far away from home.
Why the Anzhi Makhachkala Project Collapsed So Quickly
The collapse came with the same speed as the rise. In August 2013, Anzhi announced a major reduction in spending. Club president Konstantin Remchukov confirmed that the budget would be cut sharply, and reports at the time said expensive stars would leave as the club shifted toward a more restrained model. The National reported that Kerimov had taken over in January 2011 hoping to build a side capable of European honors, but by 2013 the project was being pulled back after rapid success failed to arrive.
The squad was dismantled almost immediately. Eto’o and Willian moved to Chelsea. Zhirkov, Igor Denisov, and others went to Dynamo Moscow. Diarra and Mbark Boussoufa moved to Lokomotiv Moscow. The team that had seemed like a new force in Russian football was broken apart in a single summer, and the effect on the pitch was severe. Anzhi finished bottom of the Russian Premier League in 2013–14 and were relegated.
The longer fall made the story even sharper. Anzhi later returned to the top flight, but the superclub era was gone. Financial problems continued, and in June 2022 the Russian Football Union confirmed that Anzhi had failed to obtain the license needed to play in the third tier, causing the club to lose professional status. A project that had once paid some of the largest wages in world football ended with the club outside the professional game.
Anzhi Makhachkala remains one of football’s clearest examples of ambition without durable structure. Eto’o’s signing gave the club instant global relevance, and the 2012–13 season proved the project had real competitive force. But the model depended too heavily on one owner’s spending, too little on sustainable foundations, and too much on acceleration. For a short time, Anzhi made Dagestan part of football’s global conversation. Then the money moved, and the project disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.
