Blackburn Rovers turned £450k signing into a £100k-a-week star: View | OneFootball

The towering centre-back was a major hit at Ewood Park

Late in the 2007 January transfer window, one position that Blackburn Rovers found themselves needing to strengthen, was defence.

With Lucas Neill moving on to Premier League rivals West Ham, and Ryan Nelsen having been sidelined by injury for several months, extra depth in the backline at Ewood Park was needed.

One of those who would come in to help bolster the options in that area of the pitch, was Chris Samba.

The centre-back joined from Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin on a three-and-a-half-year deal after impressing manager Mark Hughes while on trial.

Blackburn reportedly paid a fee of £450,000 to secure the services of Samba, and it could be argued that in doing so, they had taken something of a gamble.

Samba had little top-flight experience when joining Blackburn

Initially, the centre-back had begun his career in the French second-tier with Sedan, before being released at the end of the 2003/04 season.

It then took Samba some time to find a new club, with a number of unsuccessful trials, and problems with injury.

However, he would secure a new club when he made his move to Hertha Berlin, after some six months as a free agent.

But having completed that move, Samba initially linked up with the German club's second-team, and took some time to make it into the senior side.

Indeed, by the time he departed Berlin for Blackburn in January 2007, the Congo international had made just 19 Bundesliga appearances for the club.

So with his history of injuries and lack of top-flight experience, there was certainly some risk associated with bringing the centre-back to Ewood Park.

In the though, this would prove to be a move that paid of handsomely, both for Blackburn, and Samba himself.

Samba became a valuable player through Ewood Park exploits

Immediately after arriving at Rovers, Samba would establish himself as a key and consistent feature at the heart of the club's backline.

His towering presence made him an asset in both areas, making some crucial contributions in terms of both preventing, and at times, scoring goals.

That also saw him become something of a Premier League icon, even to supporters of clubs other than Blackburn.

Across his time at Ewood Park, he would help the club to remain a constant, and often competitive, presence in the top-flight of English football.

He would also help Rovers to reach the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and League Cup during his time there.

But when his time with Blackburn would come to an end after just over five years as a player at Ewood Park, it did so in a rather expensive move.

In January 2012, with the club slipping away from its past glories after a change in ownership and management, Samba handed in a transfer request.

Despite that, Rovers did keep him beyond the end of the 2012 January transfer window in England, amid interest from the likes of Tottenham, and QPR.

But just a month later, the centre-back did indeed depart Ewood Park, as he moved to Russia to join Anzhi Makhachkala.

At the time, following a takeover the year before, Anzhi were investing some big funds in a number of high-profile signings, bringing in the likes of Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto'o.

With Samba also heading to the club, it was reported that Blackburn received a fee of £12million for the sale of the centre-back, a major profit on the fee they had paid to Hertha for him.

Despite signing a four-year contract with Anzhi, Samba initially spent just a year with the club, before returning to England to sign for QPR in January 2013.

In doing so, those moves highlighted just how much the player, like Rovers, had been given a financial boost following his exit from Ewood Park.

Upon his move to Loftus Road, it emerged that Samba had been receiving £100,000 per week at Anzhi, with QPR paying him a similar price.

Remarkably though, when the R's were relegated from the Premier League just a few months later, Samba returned to Anzhi again.

At that point, it was claimed that the Russian club would match both the £12.5million fee QPR had paid for him, and the £100,000 per week wage he was supposedly earning at Loftus Road.

However, his return to Anzhi saw him make just five appearances, before he was sold the following year as the club's financial exuberance caught with them, and they looked to recoup funds.

Samba's playing career then somewhat fizzled away, ending with some quieter, more under the radar spells with Dynamo Moscow, Panathinaikos and Aston Villa.