samuel eto pictures

samuel eto'o
samuel eto'o
samuel eto'o













samuel eto'o biography

Samuel Eto'o Fils (born March 10, 1981 in Douala, Cameroon) is a professional footballer, who currently plays in the Primera División for FC Barcelona. He is a distinguished forward who is known for his outstanding positional awareness and tackling. His talents have made him a leading scorer for both club and country and one of the world's top strikers. He was named African Footballer of the Year in 2003, 2004, and 2005, making him the first player to win the award three years in succession since it has been handed out by the Confederation of African Football. He was recently named as one of the strikers for the FIFPro World XI team for the second consecutive year.

Club career

During his time with RCD Mallorca, he became the highest ever league goal scorer in the history of the club, with 54 goals. He signed for FC Barcelona in the summer of 2004 for a transfer fee of 24 million after a long series of three-way negotiations with Mallorca and Real Madrid. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez said that Eto'o was not needed as they already had Ronaldo and Raúl signed as strikers. Eto'o made his debut for Barcelona in the first game of the season at Rà cing Santander, on August 29, 2004.

Recent

During Barcelona's Champions League match against Werder Bremen on September 27, 2006, he ruptured the meniscus in his right knee. Ricard Pruna, Barcelona's doctor, originally estimated that the injury would keep him out of action for two to three months. However, after an operation to treat the damaged meniscus, Barcelona doctors upped the estimated recovery time to five months.

Eto’o’s 5 months absence is a major blow for FC Barcelona as he is one of their most influential players. Though he will miss more than 20 matches, Joan Laporta still believes he can retain his title of "Pichichi". Eto’o himself says that he will be playing again before the five month period. Less than one month after his operation, Eto'o has been spotted in ValenciaGP, during the MotoGP, walking without crutches. Eto'o is surprising everyone with his fast progress, even after being asked not to watch Barca playing on TV. On January 16th, 2007 Eto'o went back to training with Barcelona and said he will start playing with the team when he is 100% fit.

On February 11, 2007, in a match with Racing Santander, Eto'o refused to come on as a substitute; manager Frank Rijkaard said 'He did not want to come on, I don't know why'. Ronaldinho was critical of Eto'o, saying 'it always is important to think about what's best for the team'. Eto'o responded by saying 'Telling a news conference I didn't want to play is the behaviour of a bad person', explaining that he did not come on because he did not have time to warm up properly. Eto'o and Ronaldinho have since reconciled. Later, Eto'o denied calling them 'bad people'. Despite this, Eto’o has been linked with many clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

On February 25, 2007, Eto'o scored the third goal in the 3-0 win against Athletic Bilbao; this was his first start since recovering.

International career

Eto'o made his Cameroon debut at the age of just 15 in a friendly match against Costa Rica in a 5-0 loss, and at the age of 17, Eto'o was the youngest player at the 1998 FIFA World Cup when he appeared for Cameroon against Italy, at the age of 17 years and 3 months, being the only player who had been born in the '80s.

He also played at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
To date, Eto'o has won three major tournaments with his country: the 2000 and 2002 African Nations Cups, as well as the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

In 2006, Eto'o missed his penalty shot in the quarter-final of the 2006 African Cup of Nations game against Côte d'Ivoire, ending a record run of 24 consecutive penalties made, and eliminating his side from the competition. Nontheless, he was still the top scorer of the tournament, with five goals.