Manchester City are ready to make Samuel Eto'o the Premiership's first £200,000-a-week player. The Times says City will match Barcelona's asking price of about £25 million for Eto'o and have agreed to pay the striker in the region of £200,000 a week, including bonuses, as the Barclays Premier League's new financial superpower looks set to deliver the global superstar that Sheikh Mansour, the club's billionaire owner, craves.

Over the course of a four-year contract, the deal could be worth more than £66 million in total, with City hoping formally to conclude the extraordinary transfer coup before the squad flies to South Africa on July 15 for a pre-season tour.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal forward, will supersede Eto'o as the highest-paid player in the world once the annual 25 per cent increase on his £9.5 million-a-year salary at Real Madrid kicks in, but, for now, Eto'o would have no rival in the pay stakes.

Barca president Joan Laporta confirmed last night: "Eto'o has a stratospheric offer from City, which would convert him into the best-paid player in the world.

"It's starting to become clear that he has this monster offer. He wants to stay but an offer like this is very difficult to refuse. If Eto'o accepts this stratospheric offer, we will have to bring someone in."