Part 4: Player Profile – Samuel Eto’o
He was also a part of the squad that won the African Cup of Nations in the year 2000 and 2002. The Cameroonian was also a gold medalist during the 2000 Summer Olympics. During the 2003 Confederations Cup, Cameroon finished runner
up and he scored his only goal against Brazil and that win that Cameroon secured that day was the biggest upset of the tournament and it was all because of Eto’o. His team was eliminated in the Africa Cup of Nations as Eto’o was the one who missed the “decisive”
penalty against Ivory Coast.
In the year 2008, Eto’o became a joint leading scorer alongside Laurent Pokou; during the African Cup of Nations. He scored his fourteenth goal with a penalty that he took against Zambia. Later, he scored another penalty against
Sudan and with the help of that goal, he became the tournament’s all-time leading goal scorer. He took his tally to 16 with the help of the 5 goals that he scored during the tournament as he also bagged a golden boot award in the same competition.
He did not only help the team in Africa, he also helped them come up on International Level as he managed to help them win the qualifiers of the FIFA World Cup 2010. He helped his side qualify for the tournament and took them to
the group stages of the FIFA World Cup 2010 with a captain’s arm band.
On 1st December, 2009 Samuel Eto’o came 5th in the Ballon d’Or which was taken by his former Barcelona team mate, Lionel Messi. Later in 2010, during the FIFA World Cup 2010, he managed to score a goal against
Denmark. However, the African side lost the match 2-1 and with the result they were the first team to be relegated without a single point in the group stages. Eto’o described the scenario as the biggest disappointment of his career.
In his biography, he described how he faced many challenges in his life and tried to overcome them. He clearly told the world to stop racism as the “black” Cameroonian was a victim of Racist comments during his time in the Spanish
League. During his time in Barcelona he was booed and given racist comments every time he went away from home. He told the press that he was simply scared to bring his family to the stands because he didn’t really want his kids to hear what the crowd used
to say to him.
Just because of racism, the Cameroonian decided to leave the Spanish League and joined the Italian League. However, he didn’t really know that the Italians were racists as well and later on during his season with Inter Milan he
was racially abused throughout the away legs but the Inter Milan fans always treated him with great respect and honour as the Cameroonian scored a lot of crucial goals for them.
Samuel Eto’o is a striker that is better than many strikers that are currently playing football. He is definitely a legend and he will be remembered by many after he retires. No one really knows whether he is going to stay at Inter
Milan or if he is going to leave, but right now he is performing for the Italian team and is working under the former Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez. They recently lost the match against Atletico Madrid and Eto’o did not even manage to find the net once
throughout the match; however, he still managed to find the net in both the league games that Inter Milan played. He also scored a goal against the Dutch Champions Twente that were paired up against them in the UEFA Champions League.
Samuel Eto’o is definitely a legendary striker of this era!
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