Samuel Eto’o was the Cameroonian player who retired from professional football in 2019. During his professional career he was considered as one of the best strikers in the world. Additionally, he is considered to be the best African players of all time. He won the African Player of the Year for four times: in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010.

Beginning of the rich career

His career started in Kadji Sports Academy in 1992. In the year of 1997 he joined Real Madrid, but since he was under age of 16 he could not play for the first team, so he was loaned to Leganes where he scored 3 goals in 28 games. After the loan spell in Leganes, Real Madrid’s president back then (Florentino Perez) decided to loan him again. He went to Espanyol but he did not play a single game. In 2000, Eto’o moves to Mallorca for another loan. In this season, Eto’o scored 6 goals in 13 matches, after Mallorca officials decided to buy Eto’o from Real Madrid. Mallorca paid record transfer fee in the amount of $4,4 million. He played 120 games for Mallorca from 2000-2004 scoring 48 goals.

Transfer to Barcelona

In 2004, Eto’o moved to Barcelona for 24 million euros. It was rather lengthy negotiations since there were three clubs involved. Mallorca that wanted him stay, Real Madrid that wanted to buy Eto’o back and send him to another loan and Barcelona. At the end, Barcelona won in these negotiations since Florentino had already enough non-EU players. Eto’o made his debut against Racing Santander on August 29, 2004. After wining the La Liga in the season 2004-2005, Eto’o chanted “Madrid, cabrón, saluda al campeón” which means “Madrid, bastards, salute the champions” for which he was fined by Royal Spanish Football Federation in the amount of 12,000 euros. In five years he was in Barcelona, he played 144 matches scoring 108 goals. In 2006 he received the Pichici trophy for the top goal scorer in league. He won the first Champions League with Barcelona in 2006 to which he contributed with six goals. Eto’o received The award for the Best Forward in the Year in the same season.

Moving to Inter Milan

In the season 2009-2010, Eto’o was part of the exchange between Barcelona and Inter Milan. Eto’o came to Inter, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic moved to Barcelona.

Eto’o was part of the famous treble winner squad with Inter Milan in 2010. And only year before, he won the treble with Barcelona. In his 67 games for Inter, he scored 33 goals.

End of a career

In 2011, Eto’o moved to Russian squad, Anzhi Makhachkala. After that, Eto’o switched clubs very often. He spent one year in Chelsea (2013-2014), one year in Everton (2014-2015), one year in Sampdoria (2015), three years in Antalyaspor (2015-2018), one year in Konyaspor (2018) and one year in Qatar (2018-2019) after which he finished his career.

It is wort mentioning that Samuel Eto’o played 587 matches for the clubs, scoring in total of 293 goals, while he has 118 matches for Cameroon where he scored 56 goals.

To wrap it up

To sum it up, Eto’o is one of the best goal scorers in the history of Mallorca football club.

While in Barcelona, he finished top scored in La Liga, and he was named top 9 in history by the players.

With Inter he won the treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, and UEFA Champions League) after doing it with the Barcelona a year before.

For Cameroon, he is the top scorer in the history of the selection and the top scored in the history of the CAN which he won two time as well with Cameroon.

Samuel Eto’o, simply said, one of the best strikers in the football history.