Players FC Barcelona – Samuel Eto’o
Samuel Eto’o, although he seems to have been playing at the highest level for a long time, was in fact born in March 1981 in Nkon, Cameroon. Seemingly followed by controversy, Eto’o signed for Real Madrid when he was 16 and had, to put it mildly, an odd relationship with the club thereafter.
First of all, upon his arrival at the Madrid airport, young Samuel was forgotten: a young black African with no Spanish who was hanging around an airport; an inauspicious start. After uneventful loan spells at Leganés and Espanyol, the playful-looking Eto’o found himself on loan to Mallorca, where he really began to show his credentials.
Scoring 54 goals, Eto’o became the islanders’ top league scorer and developed a real affinity with the fans there, famous for scoring a spectacular individual goal against Madrid at the Bernabéu! Eto’o enjoyed his relationship with Mallorca so much that, when they reached the Copa del Rey final in 2003, he paid €30,000 for a meal for them!
At the end of his loan, the Madrid fans were almost unanimous in wanting Samuel to return to the capital and compete for forward positions with Raúl and Ronaldo. What followed was a summer of non-stop speculation and discussions and finally, for €24 million, the player signed for Barcelona, something that still annoys many Real Madrid fans.
Since then, Eto’o has scored many goals for the Catalan giants. In his first season in which he won a championship, Eto’o scored 25 league goals, including the title-clinching goal for Levante. He reached 50 goals in just 67 games, a club record.
In addition to winning the African Footballer of the Year award three consecutive times since 2003, Samuel was part of the Cameroon team that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2000 and 2002 and was runner-up in 2008. Previously, he had been the youngest player, at 17 years and 3 months, in the 1998 World Cup. He was the top scorer, top scorer, in the League in the 2005/06 season, when, of course, he scored the equalizer in the Champions League final against Arsenal.
However, controversy has never been far away. After winning La Liga in 2005, Eto’o made the mistake of singing an insulting song about Madrid during the celebrations on the pitch. He has also been famous for his outspokenness in his allegations of racial abuse chanted on the pitches, even threatening to leave during a league match at Zaragova. Also, there were moments during the 2007/08 season when Samuel Eto’o seemed a very desolate figure, when his relationship with some of the other players was not the best. At the end of the season, it seemed that the club was determined to transfer Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto’o, the perceived bad influences on the club. However, Eto’o, with typical determination, insisted that his future was still at Barcelona, and he has proven absolutely right.
Samuel Eto’o is fast, bipedal, fearless and a fully committed team player and arguably the best center forward in modern football.