Soccer-Eto'o must respect wage structure, Laporta says

By Padraic Cassidy

NEW YORK June 10 (Reuters) - Barcelona President Joan Laporta criticised the reported 68-million-euro ($94.05-million) fee Real Madrid paid for Kaka and cautioned he would not match that money to extend Samuel Eto'o's contract.

"Kaka is a very good player, a very good talent, but the price that Real Madrid has paid for him is not the market price," Laporta said on Wednesday of the Brazilian midfielder, who was signed from AC Milan this week.

"I hope that the next transfers put more common sense into the market price."

Laporta said he wanted to sign a new contract with Eto'o but cautioned that the Cameroon player's new contract would have to fit into the club's wage structure.

"A lot of clubs would like Eto'o in their team," said Laporta. "We will do our best in order to renew his contract because he, in my opinion, is the best striker in the world."

Eto'o has one year remaining on his contract with the Primera Liga club and Laporta said extending that "depends on two parties, but we have a wage structure that we will respect.

"We would like to renew the contract with Eto'o but not at any price because in this global economic crisis we have to be an example as well," Laporta said. "I hope that he understands, and we will see in the next weeks."

Laporta was speaking at the opening of a UNICEF exhibition in New York of photographs documenting the impact of AIDS on children in Swaziland. Barcelona have the UNICEF logo on their shirts and the club's foundation has agreed to give the group 1.5 million euros a year until 2011.

(Editing by Mark Egan and Clare Fallon; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)