Part 1: Player Profile – Samuel Eto’o
Samuel Eto’o is a Cameroonian player and he currently plays as a striker for the Italian team Inter Milan. Not only does he play at club level, but he is also a part of his country’s national football team and is the captain.
Samuel Eto’o started his career from training at kadji Sports Academy and he also holds the Spanish passport so that he is not considered as a “foreign” player in the European Union.
While playing for the Spanish team Barcelona, he managed to score more than 100 goals for the club and he still holds a record number of appearances by an African player in the Spanish La Liga. In the year 2010, he also became
the player who managed to win two European Trebles as he managed to gain two achievements; one with the Spanish team Barcelona and the other with the Italian team Inter Milan. Moreover, he is also the second player who has managed to score in two separate
UEFA Champions League final match and he is now considered as one of the players who managed to win the UEFA Champions League with two different teams. Other names that can be included in this category are Paulo Sousa, Gerard Pique and Marcel Desailly. Another
record that he holds is that he managed to win the UEFA Champions League with three different teams; one with Real Madrid, even though he managed to win only three games for them. Later, he won it with the Spanish team Barcelona and currently Inter Milan are
the Champions of Europe and Samuel Eto’o is a first team player for the Italian side. Only the AC Milan player, Clarence Seedorf has managed to pull this off as he has won the “great” title with AC Milan, Ajax and also Real Madrid. These two players are the
only African players who have managed to come to the UEFA Champions League from three different sides.
As an international player, Samuel Eto’o has featured in the squad of the 2000 Olympic tournament and it was the team that actually managed to win the tournament. He has also participated in three FIFA World Cups and also six African
Nations cups. Not only did he perform in the African Nations Cup, he also managed to win the trophy twice and in the history of African Nations Cup, it is the Cameroonian who is the all-time highest goal scorer as he has found the net for 18 times.
He started his club career from the Spanish team Real Madrid back in 1997. All that he could do was to feature for the Real Madrid “B” team and trained with them during his time in the Spanish side. Even though he was only a “minor”
in the club, he couldn’t really help the team and Real Madrid B were relegated to the third tire of the Spanish League and there, non- European Union players were not allowed to play. As a result to this, he had to move to the second division team CD Leganes
and he played in the club for a year. He was only in the 10th grade as he featured for that particular team. After appearing for the team for 40 times, he only managed to bag himself four goals and had to make a return to Real Madrid next year.
One year later, he had to go out on loan to Espanyol but he never really made an appearance for the club.
In the same season, when the winter transfer window was opened he went to the other La Liga team and a team that was a threat to his former team Real Madrid, Mallorca. As the striker had matured by then, he managed to find the
net 6 times and played 19 games for the club. When the season ended, Eto’o left the Spanish giants Real Madrid and signed a permanent deal with Mallorca for a club record 4.4 million pounds fee.
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