It's safe to assume that you've heard of the Russian club, or have heard of their antics over the last year, but who exactly are 'the wild division' and how did their story arise?
First a little history. Formed in 1991 (they're younger than Mario Balotelli), the club are based in the Dagestan region of Russian - of which Makhachkala is the capital. Instead of the permafrost image of Cossack hats and vodka; think more of the middle east, as the city is nearer to Baghdad then Moscow. In their 20 years of existence, they have dined at Russia's top table 4 times, and apart from one 4th place finish, have never played better than a Premiership relegation fodder. If they were in English football; they would be Ipswich Town. This brief history is nothing, compared to the intense transformation that has happened since January 2011, when Suleyman Kerimov took over the club.
With £7.8bn as his personal fortune, Kerimov is the 118th richest man in the world. If you're grasping for some perspective, he is only narrowly eclipsed by the more familiar fiscally endowed Premiership owners of Chelsea and Man City:
Kerimov - born in Dagestan, and an accounting and economics graduate from the city's University - is the equivalent of a minister in Russia's 'democratic' government. It may be hard to understand how Kerimov has nearly £8bn, whereas John Prescott - his British equivalent (and I use that in the loosest possible context) - doesn't. Put simply, the Russian government owns half of Gazprom - the world's largest gas producer. With turnover of $117bn a year - that's 1.17 trillion dollars - the Russian government collect $58 billion per year, and not all of that finds its way to the peasants. Kerimov decided to invest in his beloved hometown, and what better way than to pluck the minnows out of obscurity and place them on a plinth to impress the European elite.
Aside from building a new 40,000 seater stadium and investing heavily in infrastructure, he has spent lavishly on players, so much so that the already distorted boundaries of morals and logic have been torn at the seams. Anzhi Makhachkala's starting XI reads so:
Gabulov
Angbwa Joao Carlos Samba Roberto Carlos
Boussoufa Carcela-Gonzalez Jucilei Zhirkov
Eto'o Holenda
Of these names, only the Chelsea cast-off Yuri Zhirkov is the only Russian. Big names including ex-Blackburn star Christopher Samba added to the colossal verterans Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto'o this year, who became the world's highest earning footballer in the deal with a reported $20million post tax salary, per year. That's close to what Premier League teams can spend in wages on an entire squad. There's no doubting that bigger names will continue to drop in Dagestan with the only competition in terms of financial firepower from emerging Chinese forces. The club's development will explode when the side qualifies for European football, which could be as early as next season. The Russian Premier League is in a transition period as the season start time is being changed from November to August. To accommodate this, this season's championship is being extended into a marathon 18 month campaign, ending in May 2012. After November 2011, the table was split in 2 and the two halves of 8 teams will play each other twice more to determine the winners of European places and relegation. Anhzi scraped into the top half with two games to spare this year, but with the points carrying over for the last shootout campaign, it is unlikely that the out of form team will achieve any top honours.
Next season will be an astonishing spectacle. The club will no doubt sign a host of marquee names and continue to develop under new boss Guus Hiddink's masterful tutelage. With the money behind them, in a less than top league the side will be in the 2014 Champions League and it will be a delight to see how the Manchester's and London's deal with the prospect of a chilly night in Dagestan, considering the environment is not what could be described as, familiar, in the capital.
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