Samuel Eto'o Fils (born March 10, 1981 in Nkon, Cameroon) is a footballer, who currently plays for FC Barcelona. He is a distinguished forward who is known for his outstanding positional awareness and shooting technique. 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.

Early career

His career started at the age of five when he met up with a Somalian man who taught him to play football in the city of Burco where he was raised up from the age of three to the age of 13, when he moved back to his hometown of Nkon. Prior to joining Barcelona in 2004, Eto'o spent most of his career on the books of Real Madrid, although he only played in three league games in his six years under contract. Instead, the last four and a half of those years were spent on loan with Real Mallorca. In 2003 he and his teammates lifted the Copa del Rey after defeating Recreativo de Huelva.

FC Barcelona

His signing with Barcelona was controversial as Real Madrid owned half of his contract and had preference over his signing. However, he was turned down by chairman Florentino Pérez, who argued that he already had the best two strikers in the league (Ronaldo and Raúl) and that there was no place for another non-European Union player. The contract release was signed after paying 24 million euros, of which half was for Mallorca. Real's loss has been Barça's gain - Samuel Eto'o has proven to be a world-class acquisition, helping Barcelona to the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 Spanish La Liga title as well as the 2006 UEFA Champions League. He also finished in third-place of voting for the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year award; coming behind his Barcelona teammate Ronaldinho and Chelsea F.C. midfielder Frank Lampard.

On May 17, 2006 in the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final against Arsenal FC, Eto'o was pulled down by Arsenal's goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann, leading to Lehmann's expulsion, and he scored the equalising goal. Barcelona went on to win 2-1. Eto'o was unanimously elected man of the match of the Champions League Final by a jury composed of football journalists and sportsmen.

Unfortunately, he suffered a serious knee injury during a CL group stage match against Werder Bremen on September 27, 2006, which will keep him out of action for at least two to three months.

2005-2006 Pichichi

After missing out on last year's "Pichichi" Eto'o made amends for it when on May 20, 2006, Samuel Eto'o assured himself the title of "pichichi" (top scorer of La Liga) after scoring a goal against Athletic de Bilbao in FC Barcelona's last game of the 2005-2006 season. Had he not scored in this game, he would still have been La Liga's top scorer for the season but would have had to share the title with Valencia CF's prolific striker, David Villa.

International career

Eto'o made his Cameroon debut at the age of just 15, 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. He then played in the 2002 edition. Eto'o 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 24-shot penalty session in which every penalty was scored and eliminating his side. On the other hand he was the top scorer of the tournament, with five goals.

Skills & Playing Style

Samuel Eto'o was described in 2006 by football pundit Tommy Smyth as one of the best pure strikers in the world. He is known for his quick pace and agility on the ball and an ability to score equally well with both feet as well as his head. His style of play is characteristically daring and he often runs at defenders and goalkeepers with total confidence in his ability to get the ball past them. Because of his slight frame, Eto'o relies on nimbleness and timing rather than strength to score, and he frequently scores on the first touch after running onto well-placed through balls. He has also been known to use a move in which he passes the ball to himself high over the opposing goalkeeper before running around him, settling the pass, and scoring.

Under Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, Eto'o has played as the central striker as well as on either wing in an attempt to stymie teams who man-mark the Barca front three. Eto'o has adapted very well to the wing positions and has created numerous goals for his team mates while simultaneously scoring a lot of goals himself. In 2005/06 season he became the first player since the 1990 season to score 50 goals over 2 seasons in La Liga.

Eto'o does not shirk from his defensive responsibilities and has won many admirers for his fantastic work-rate. And the trust Rijkaard placed in his striker's defensive capabilities was evident when he shifted Eto'o to the left flank in the Champions League semi-final against Milan to counter the attacking threat of Cafu.

Experiencing Racism

Eto'o has experienced racial abuse in some matches outside Barcelona's stadium, the Nou Camp. In some rival stadiums it is perhaps due to the intensity of the rivalry and the fear of Eto'o scoring and bringing victory to his club side. Eto'o is not the only black player who is subject to racist taunts, and he is one of many players who have risen their voices against these hooligans. An incident occurred in February of 2006, when Eto'o suffered from racially-driven verbal abuse by some Real Zaragoza spectators during a match against FC Barcelona. The fans began making monkey-like sounds whenever Eto'o had possession of the ball. Deeply offended, Eto'o threatened to leave the pitch in the middle of the game, but was prevented by the quick intervention of his team-mates and the referee, who rushed to the pitch to calm him down. His teammate Ronaldinho, who has suffered similar abuses but less intensely, said he was fed up with the sounds and that if Eto'o had left the pitch, he would have done the same. Zaragoza was fined €9000 and Eto'o declared in the aftermath that it wasn't enough and that La Romareda, Real Zaragoza's stadium, should have been closed for at least one year. However, Eto'o's coach, Frank Rijkaard, quickly told him to concentrate on football and to stop talking about the incident.

The incident sparked controversy as to the racist attitudes of Spanish football fans, and opened a general discussion on racism in football. England's Football Association voiced its outrage at the incident, reeling from the English team's similar predicament during a friendly match against the Spanish national team on Spanish soil. Recently in Spain, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Mexico and Italy, black players have been the object of racial abuse from the opposing team fans. However, while some merely ignore these abuses, others like Eto'o and the Ivorian defender Marc Zoro of Messina have reacted by trying to leave the pitch. This has had the merit of bringing the racial issue to the forefront and prompting FIFA's president, Sepp Blatter, to threaten to impose more stringent sanctions for such attitudes.

Statistics

Honours

National Team

• Olympic Gold Medal: 2000
• African Nations Cup: 2000, 2002

Club

• Copa del Rey: 2003
• La Liga: 2004-05, 2005-06
• UEFA Champions League: 2006

Personal

• African Footballer of the Year: 2003, 2004, 2005
• FIFA World Player of the Year: 3^rd place in 2005.