German Tkachenko: Before Anzhi, Kerimov attempted to buy Roma, PSG, and Spartak

German Tkachenko, a well-known Russian agent and head of ProSports Management company, revealed that his long-term business partner Suleiman Kerimov had made three unsuccessful attempts before he finally bought Anzhi.

«Kerimov attempted to buy football clubs three times. The first one was Spartak Moscow. Chervichenko [the then owner of Spartak – Sports.ru] refused, it was before they struck a deal with Lukoil. Then was a big job done to acquire AS Roma, and at that time he already came close. After that there was a nice idea to buy PSG. It was in 2005.»

«And now they’re finally sold.»

«But it’s only now! After Nicolas Sarkozy spoke with the leaders of Qatar. Suleiman I had an idea of a club in a big city. I mean a city like Paris. Nice idea, but it would be difficult to create a competitive team there, because France has the largest tax burden per dollar of wages paid.

«Not that Kerimov was so keen on football. But he loves it as a spectator. And here, as I understand it, he was just asked for a help by the president of Dagestan. Suleiman agreed: OK, he said, if you avoid relegation and stay in the Premier League, I’ll help. But since he can’t do anything half-heartedly, everything started moving. He said: we should be no worse than Shakhtar Donetsk, and even better,» Tkachenko revealed in an interview with PROsport.