Anzhi Makhachkala

Anzhi Makhachkala are one of Russian football's great curiosities: a club from the Dagestan republic in the North Caucasus who briefly became one of the most talked-about teams in the world. Founded in 1991, they were thrust into the global spotlight in 2011 when billionaire owner Suleiman Kerimov embarked on a spectacular spending spree, bringing Samuel Eto'o, Willian, and Roberto Carlos to the unlikely football outpost of Makhachkala under Dutch manager Guus Hiddink. The experiment ended as abruptly as it began, but the story is one no football fan will ever forget.

Founded in 1991 in Makhachkala, Dagestan, Anzhi competed in the Russian Premier League during their peak years and finished third in 2013. Following the withdrawal of major funding, they dropped through the divisions and have competed at lower levels since.

Dark blue and yellow are the colours of Anzhi, and the kits from the 2011 to 2013 era carry a unique place in football shirt history. The sight of Samuel Eto'o, one of the world's most celebrated strikers, wearing an Anzhi shirt while earning a reported weekly wage that made headlines globally remains one of the more surreal images in modern football. Collectors prize those shirts precisely because the story was so extraordinary and so short-lived, a remarkable footnote written into the fabric of Russian football.