Samuel Eto'o

Samuel Eto'o Fils (born March 10, 1981 in Nkon,
Cameroon) is a football (soccer)|football striker,
who currently plays for FC Barcelona|Barcelona. He
was named African Footballer of the Year in 2003
and 2004.

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 RCD Mallorca|Real Mallorca.  In 2003 he and
his teammates lifted the Copa del Rey|King's Cup
after defeating Recreativo de Huelva.

At the age of 17, Eto'o was the youngest player at
the Wc|1998 when he suited for Cameroon national
football team|Cameroon against Italy national
football team|Italy. He then played in the
Football World Cup 2002|2002 edition. Eto'o won
three major tournaments with his country: the 2000
African Nations Cup|2000 and 2002 African Nations
Cups, as well as the gold medal at the Football at
the 2000 Summer Olympics|2000 Summer Olympics.

His signing with Barcelona was very 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 González|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.  Samuel Eto'o has proven to
be a great aquisition, helping Barcelona to the
2004/2005 Spanish La Liga title and being the
team's top scorer with a final figure of 24 goals,
just one short of Pichichi|top scorer Diego
Forlán.

==Anecdote==
When he was 15, Eto'o signed with Real Madrid and
flew over. However, when he arrived on Madrid
airport, nobody received him. In his desperation,
young Samuel walked over to the first African he
encountered. That man took pity on him and took
him to the Real Madrid grounds. Eto'o has stated
that he would gladly thank this man, but that he
neither has his name or contacts.