Eto'o: Living Legend

Football is big news in Cameroon, especially the national hero Samuel Eto’o Fils who has played for more than a decade with Real Madrid, Mallorca, Barcelona and Inter Milan. He won the Champions League, League and Domestic Cup treble with Inter last year and the same treble with Barcelona the year before which is a unique achievement. For Cameroon he has won two African Nations Cups, the Olympic football tournament, appeared in three World Cups and scored over 50 goals including a record 18 in the finals stages of the African Nations Cup. He has also been African footballer of the year three times.

Samuel Etoó in national team action

Football shirts are fashion items here and when I was last here 2 years ago the shirt of choice was FC Barcelona. When they sold Eto’o shirts were burned in large numbers and now Inter shirts are everywhere. Much to my disappointment the second most popular team now appears to be Chelsea. Despite another popular Cameroonian, Alex Song playing for Arsenal, the Cameroonian public seems to favour teams that actually win trophies!
Eto’o is here this week to play for the national team against DR Congo. However Song, like some other prominent players, is not here having allegedly fallen out of favour with Eto’o (who isn’t the manager but I'm told he might as well be). These rumours have caused a split among those of us who think Eto'o is merely a world-class player and those who think he walks on water. I found myself in the middle of a very heated debate on the subject after midnight (and after too many beers) in a bar in Douala. When I ventured that we might be better off without Eto'o if it is true he is influencing team selection like this, I was told that my belongings would be at the airport in the morning and I would be deported for my views!

My plan to travel to see the game in the capital Yaounde was dashed by the sudden late decision to switch the match to Garoua in the north of the country. Despite Congo objecting that Garoua is in the epicentre of the current cholera epidemic and that they had already paid for their hotel accommodation in Yaounde, the African football federation (which has a Cameroonian president) backed Cameroon. So I had to settle for watching the game on tv in Douala. A dreadful Cameroon team achieved a 1-1 draw courtesy only of an embarrassing own goal by the Congolese right-back who will probably have to claim political asylum rather than return home!