Here in the dangerous mountains of Dagestan,an elite soccer player from the top tier of the game ran out onto the green field of a tiny stadium on Sunday to begin what he said was an adventure into the unknown. The player,Samuel Etoo,30,was bought just last month from the Inter Milan soccer club in Italy by a Russian oligarch for a sum that sportswriters say makes him the worlds highest-paid soccer player. He has left behind a life in the limelight on the European circuit to play for an obscure team here in Makhachkala,a city so unsafe that he will fly in only to play,as he did this weekend,and then fly out again to Moscow,where he and his team live and train. In his first home game,Etoo scored one of two goals in a 2-1 victory over Volga. Supporters chanted his name and the name of his new club,Anzhi. As he walked off,small boys ran out to touch him,chased and sometimes tackled by security men with black batons. His new clubs owner,the oligarch Suleyman Kerimov,signed the Cameroonian player away from Inter Milan,putting an unusual twist on a brilliant career that has included three European Champions League titles with Barcelona and Inter Milan,as well as a gold medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 with his national team,making him the biggest name ever to play for a Russian team. I have already swept all possible awards,and Id like to start a new stage in my career, he said at a news conference at the stadium. Anzhis new history is just beginning,and I want to go all the way from A to Z with the club. I will be happy to write my name into this history. All of this has puzzled many soccer players and others who follow the sport. I really think that in choosing to go over there to Russia he has to some extent signed his sporting death warrant, said a former goal keeper of the Cameroon national team,Joseph-Antoine Bell. In transferring to an obscure club,he said,Etoo is squandering the twilight years of a great career. Clearly the money drew him: $30 million over three years,according to news reports,although team officials deny disclosing that figure,calling it a trade secret. Kerimov has promised to build a new stadium to replace the citys run-down facility that now seats fewer than 16,000 people. It was not clear how much Etoo knew about Dagestan,a mountainous region on the western shore of the Caspian Sea that has surpassed Chechnya as the most violent republic in the North Caucasus. Dagestans violence grows from a seemingly intractable knot of clan and business rivalries,religion,separatism,crime and extortion,feuds,and vendettas whose roots run deep into its regions history. Every year,according to reports,100 police officers are killed here. On the night before Etoos arrival,two gun battles were reported in Dagestan,killing five people. Plenty of people will be looking out for my security,and if I took this decision its because I dont consider that my life or that of my family are in any danger, he said on his website. Ill travel there on the day of the match or the eve of the match and then Ill go back to Moscow. Its that simple. A team official said Etoos wife and children would live with him in Moscow. Many people who live here,beaten down by poverty and almost daily violence,appear to be watching the billionaire oligarchs indulgences without rancor. Dagestan has an unemployment rate of at least 40 per cent and survives on subsidies from the Kremlin that make up 75 per cent of the regions budget,said Biyakai Magomedov,of the newspaper Chernovik. The baron does what the baron wishes, said Kamil Isayev,39,manager of a telephone shop,using a phrase that echoes the feudal nature of Dagestan. He decides where his money goes. He spends here,he spends there. Some say he is spending his money to further political ambitions with a demonstration of civic-mindedness. Or he may just want a soccer team. Buying teams and players has itself become a sport among Russias so-called oligarchs,who mostly got rich in the 1990s by cornering natural resources after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its just like hes collecting mistresses or diamonds or yachts,just a demonstration the extent of his wealth, said Andrei Piontkovsky,a political commentator in Moscow. SETH MYDANS
