Andrei Arshavin made himself quite a bit of cash during this past Euro 2008. Sure his Russian squad got bounced yesterday by the Spaniards, but his amazing showing during the tournament had everyone all but writing his ticket to Chelsea, the team owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Well, not so fast comrade. It turns out young Mr. Arshavin has a hankerin’ to play in Spain and Barca has made a formal bid to his team back home, Zenit for a cool €25million transfer fee.

“Barcelona have made a formal proposal to Zenit for the purchase of Arshavin,” Konstantin Sarsaniya, Zenit’s sporting director, said. “But we will only talk about this once Andrei returns to Zenit.”

Arshavin has been linked with Chelsea and Arsenal, but says it is his dream is to play in Spain. Dennis Lachter, Arshavin’s agent, has confirmed Barcelona’s interest.

“There are not that many clubs in the world that can match his pay at the moment, but the main reasons for leaving will be sporting ones.”

Yeah, Arshavin is totally not down with random tokens of appreciation for his play. Nope, it’s all about the game for him.

Barcelona make formal bid for Andrei Arshavin [Times Online]
Image [sport-express.ru]