Samuel Eto’o, although he seems to have been playing at the highest level for a long time, was in fact born in March 1981 in Nkon, Cameroon. Apparently followed by controversy, Eto’o signed for Real Madrid when he was 16 and had, to put it mildly, a strange relationship with the club from then on.

In the first place, upon arrival at the Madrid airport, young Samuel was forgotten: a young black African without Spanish who was hanging around an airport; an inauspicious start. After uneventful loan spells at Leganés and Espanyol, the playful-looking Eto’o found himself on loan to Mallorca, where he really started to show his credentials.

Scoring 54 goals, Eto’o became the islanders’ top scorer in the league and developed a real affinity with the fans there, and is famous for scoring a spectacular individual goal against Madrid at the Bernabéu! Eto’o enjoyed his relationship with Mallorca so much that, when they reached the Copa del Rey final in 2003, he paid €30,000 for a meal for them!

At the end of his loan, the Madrid fans were almost unanimous in wanting Samuel to return to the capital and compete for the forward positions with Raúl and Ronaldo. What followed was a summer of continual speculation and discussion and finally, for €24m, the player signed for Barcelona, ​​something that still annoys many Real Madrid fans.

Since then, Eto’o has scored plenty of goals for the Catalan giants. In his first season in which he won a championship, Eto’o scored 25 league goals, including the goal that secured the title at Levante. He reached 50 goals in just 67 games, a club record.

As well as winning the African Footballer of the Year award a record three times in a row since 2003, Samuel was part of the Cameroon team that won the African Cup in 2000 and 2002 and were runners-up in 2008. Previously, he had been the youngest player, at 17 years and 3 months, in the 1998 World Cup. He was the top scorer in the League in the 2005/06 season, when, of course, he scored the equalizer in the Champions League final against Arsenal .

However, controversy has never been far away. After winning the league in 2005, Eto’o made the mistake of singing an insulting song about Madrid during the celebrations on the pitch. He has also been famous for his outspokenness in his chanted allegations of racial abuse on the pitches, even threatening to walk out during a league match in Zaragova. Also, there were times during the 2007/08 season when Samuel Eto’o seemed like a very forlorn figure, when his relationship with some of the other players was not the best. At the end of the season, it seemed that the club was determined to deal Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto’o, the perceived bad influences at the club. However, Eto’o, with typical determination, insisted that his future was still at Barcelona, ​​and he has been proved absolutely right.

Samuel Eto’o is fast, bipedal, fearless and a totally committed team player and possibly the best center forward in modern football.