PR TIMES AFRICA PRTimesAfrica (March 2016) | Page 21

Barcelona came calling in 2004 and Eto’o
scored over 100 goals in five seasons with the
Catalan giants, winning the Spanish league
thrice, Kigns cup twice, Spanish supercup
twice and the UEFA champions league twice,
including a historic treble under Pep Guardi-
ola in 2009.
He moved on to Inter, with whom he won an-
other treble, becoming the first to win back-
to-back trebles with two different teams in
two different countries. At Inter he won one
Serie A, two Italian Cups, one Champions
league, Supercopa Italiana and one FIFA Club
world cup.
He joined Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala
in 2011 and became the world’s highest paid
footballer, on a salary of 20million Euros, in a
project to turn Anzhi into a European football
powerhouse, but left after owner Suleman
Kerimov decided to cut costs in 2013. Eto’o
joined English club, Chelsea in 2013 on a
one year contract after which he moved to
Everton, Lazio in Italy and then Antalyaspor
of Turkey for whom he currently plays and
serves as caretaker coach.
Eto’o made his debut for the Cameroun na-
tional team in 1997 at 16years of age and
went on to become the youngest partic-
ipant at the 1998 world cup at 17years, he
played in four world cups, six nations cup
tournaments, one confederations cup and
one Olympic games. He won the Africa Cup
of Nations twice in 2000 & 2002 as well as
the gold medal at the Sydney Olympic games
while he was a nations cup runner up in the
year 2010 and confederations cup runner up
in 2003. Before he retired from internation-
al football in 2014, Eto’o had become his
country’s all-time top scorer and all-time top
scorer in the African cup of nations.
A serial winner, he received many individu-
al awards including, four African player of
the year awards, two African cup of nations
golden boots, one FIFA club world cup gold-
en ball, One Spanish golden boot(Pichichi),
one UEFA club forward of the year, one third
place finish in the FIFA world footballer of the
year awards and the 2015 golden foot award
among others.
Eto’o’s business interests include a clothing
line called “Samuel Eto’o 9” which is a pre-
mium clothing line for a global audience. He
also owns a telecom company in Cameroun,
called “Eto’o Telecom”, launched in 2012
with a view to creating jobs and encouraging
other footballers & wealthy Cameroonians to
invest at home.
A fierce fighter for just causes, having bat-
tled racism in European football, Eto’o estab-
lished the Samuel Eto’o Private Foundation,
with offices in Douala, Barcelona and Madrid,
to help young Africans make it in life. The
foundation has been touching lives in part-
nership with global brands like Puma, Or-
ange, Kiwi, ford, FC Barcelona, Air France and
JVC amongst others. The foundation has a
football academy, established in partnership
with FC Barcelona, which has seen scores of
Cameroonian talents move to Barcelona’s
famous La Masia Academy to further devel-
op their craft. In partnership with the Zeitz
foundation Kenya launched the Samuel Eto’o
Laikipia Unity Football Academy, School and
Environmental Education Centre at Endana
Secondary School in Laikipia. Eto’o in Oc-
tober 2015 launched a new charity called
Yellow Whistle Blower Foundation, to raise
awareness & funds for children who are vic-
tims of the Boko Haram insurgency that has
been ravaging the northern parts of Nigeria
and Cameroun along with Chad and Niger.
It could be safely said, considering his count-
less successes and humble disposition, that
Africa is a better place, “because Cameroun
gave the world a player named Samuel Eto’o
fils” to paraphrase former Barcelona presi-
dent, Joan Laporta at the launch of Eto’o’s
football academy in 2006 .
21 | PRTIMES AFRICA MARCH 2016