Samuel Eto'o's Life and Career Journey in Football

Samuel Eto'o Fils was born on March 10, 1981 in Douala, Cameroon. Eto'o was born to the pair David Eto'o and Christine Eto'o. Eto'o was born to a mother who worked as a fishmonger. While the father works as an accountant.

Since childhood, Eto'o has been very fond of soccer. He has even aspired to be Africa's best player. Having ambitions to become a professional player, Eto'o then joined the sports academy, Kadji Sport Academy, which is near where he lives.

Eto'o studied there for about four years. In 1996, Eto'o went to France to look for a club. But unfortunately no one received it. At that time, Eto'o was also considered an illegal immigrant because he did not have a clear identity.

After getting a share of rejection in France, Eto'o then moved to Spain. There, his talent was in demand by the capital giants, Real Madrid. Eto'o joined the Real Madrid youth academy in 1997, but he could only train with Real Madrid B, because he was still a minor.

Real Madrid B plays third level Spanish football or Segunda Division B, where non-EU players are not permitted to appear. Therefore, Eto'o was loaned to Leganes in the 1997/98 season.

After playing for two seasons at Leganes, Samuel Eto'o returned to Madrid but did not get a place in the Los Blancos first team. The news circulating at that time mentioned that Samuel Eto'o was not fit to wear the Real Madrid costume, because the Cameroon player was considered not handsome. El Real's president, Florentino Perez, was the party that decided to lend Eto'o to Real Mallorca.

But at the same time, Real Madrid is also filled with a number of classy strikers to make Eto'o difficult to penetrate the first team.

Playing on Mallorca, Eto'o scored four goals in 19 appearances. At the end of the season, Eto'o officially left Real Madrid, and signed a permanent contract with Mallorca at a cost of 4.4 million pounds or the equivalent of more than 73 billion rupiah.

In his second season, Eto'o scored 11 goals and began to get world attention. The President of Mallorca, Mateo Alemany, said Eto'o had a very beautiful game. In fact he doubted whether there were better players than Eto'o in the Spanish League at that time.

On Mallorca, Eto'o really built himself up. He seized the attention of many clubs. He became a fan of The Islanders because of two things, namely the ability and social nature.

The pinnacle of Mallorca and Eto'o's triumph was to win the Copa del Rey in 2002/03. From an outcast who felt he didn't get a chance to play at the Bernabeu because of his skin color, Eto'o immediately found a home in the Balearic Islands. Cared by Luis Aragones, Eto'o learned to be a better player, and to care more for his fellow comrades.

Eto'o became La Liga's top scorer, and collected 54 goals for Mallorca. Barcelona then interested in buying it at a price of 24 million euros or equivalent to 375 million billion rupiah, or five times more than the price issued by Mallorca to bring it from Madrid. In Madrid, Florentino Perez regretted his decision, and intended to bring Samuel Eto'o back. But Mallorca has already signed an agreement. Things are getting more difficult after Madrid has fulfilled the quota of three non-EU players.

At that time there were actually many who wanted Eto'o's services. Noted there are names like Machester United, Valencia, to Barcelona itself.

Long before Samuel Eto'o built his reputation as a professional player, the Cameroon national team had seen his extraordinary talent as early as possible. Samuel Eto'o entered the Cameroon national team at the age of 14, and appeared against Costa Rica on March 9, 1996.

In 1998, Eto'o became the youngest player at the World Cup. He played when Cameroon defeated Italy 3-0, at that time he was 17 years over three months. Four years later, Eto'o scored his first goal at the 2002 World Cup, when Cameroon defeated Saudi Arabia. He was part of the Cameroon national team that won the 2000 and 2002 African Nations Cups and was a 2000 Olympic gold medalist. He kicked Brazil out of the 2003 Confederations Cup with his only goal.

Eto'o is now the Africa Cup leading scorer with 16 goals. For all the successes inside and outside Africa, Samuel Eto'o won the African Footballer of the Year award four times.

In Barcelona, ??Eto'o made his debut with Los Cules on August 29, 2004. In Barcelona, ??the name Eto'o has soared. He managed to lift seven trophies with Barcelona. Including three La Liga titles and two Champions League trophies.

Although at that time Barcelona had many stars on his team, Eto'o successfully became a decider in the two Champions League final matches played by Barcelona. Right in 2009, he became part of FC Barcelona who won six titles in one season.

Along with all the success he achieved, racist sentiments raged in Spain. He is often the target of harassment by certain club fans. Even Samuel Eto'o had left the field when Zaragoza fans booed him with racist singing.

He also felt the need to evacuate his wife and three children to Paris, because Spain was no longer friendly with black citizens. In fact, Samuel Eto'o has become a Spanish citizen.

Together with other black players, Samuel Eto'o fought racism in Spanish and European football. Thierry Henry was involved in it. Another active participant is Marco Zoro, a Benfica player.

Success with Barcelona makes Eto'o targeted by several clubs. After donating six titles to the Blaugrana, Eto'o joined Inter Milan and returned to building glory there.

The Cameroon player scored 18 goals in 46 appearances in his first season. With details of 12 goals in the Italian League, two Champions League and one each in the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup.

Winning three prestigious titles in one season with the Nerazzuri, Eto'o set a record. He became the first footballer to win consecutive treble winners with two different clubs.

But again, not only in Spain, in the country of Pizza, Eto'o again received racist treatment. At that time, Eto'o received racist treatment from supporters of Cagliari. But he answered the insult by scoring a goal which was at the same time a decisive victory for the club nicknamed I Nerazzuri.

His season at Inter did not last long. After two seasons in blue and black, Eto'o moved to the Russian club, Anzhi Makhachkala, in 2011. With Anzhi, collecting 118 caps and 56 goals and a pair of African Cup titles with the Cameroon national team struggled to restore its capacity as one of the best attacker in the world.

After playing in Russia, Eto'o tried a career in England by joining Chelsea, before finally defending Everton the following season. As if unable to do much, Eto'o then moved to Sampdoria in 2015.

Eto'o was tempted to return to Mallorca after being released by Sampdoria. But he prefers Antalyaspor as the next port.

In 2018, Eto'o joined Konyaspor, and ended his golden journey in the world of football at the Qatar SC club.

Before retiring, Eto'o's contract in Qatar SC was not renewed. For almost a month more unemployed no offer came, the former Barcelona star finally chose to end his career alias retire.

During his career with 14 different clubs, Eto'o has undergone 716 matches with 359 goals and 116 assists.

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