One of the best African footballers of all time, striker Samuel Eto’o began his senior career with Real Madrid, though during his three years with the club, he spent most of his time out on loan. Mallorca, who he joined temporarily in the year 2000, signed him permanently that same year.
Eto’o established himself as a promising talent in La Liga with Mallorca, becoming a consistent and reliable forward and attracting the interest of Real Madrid’s arch-rivals. In 2004, the Cameroonian moved to Barcelona, where he would spend the next five years of his career and blossom into one of the best strikers in the world.
With Barca, Eto’o won three La Liga titles and triumphed in the Champions League twice. The 2008/09 season saw Barcelona win a European treble, something that Eto’o would win for a second successive campaign when he replicated his accomplishments, only with Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan side.
Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala signed Eto’o in 2011 and after two years, the forward moved to the Premier League for the first time. He spent a season with Chelsea and joined Everton after his contract expired, departing the Toffees, and England, in 2015. In the final four years of his career, Eto’o played for Sampdoria, Antalyaspor, Konyaspor and Qatar SC before retiring in 2019.
Samuel Eto'o Club Career Stats
Playing Career
Appearances
Goals
Assists
Notable Clubs
The former striker has remained involved in football and Eto’o has shared a number of his opinions, such as when, in 2021 as reported by AS via Squawka, he revealed which player he thought could contend with Lionel Messi’s Ballon d’Or record.
‘He Has Everything’
Eto’o made bold prediction about star forward
2021 marked Kylian Mbappe’s fourth year at Paris Saint-Germain, having been signed from Monaco and given the task, alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar, of winning the Champions League. Despite being just 23 years old at the time, Mbappe was already a World Cup winner and established as one of the best in his position in the world.
“He (Kylian Mbappe) is there and it has arrived at a good moment, in which Messi and Cristiano (Ronaldo), the gods of football, are in the night of their careers due to age and Mbappe is arriving. I hope he will be the biggest for the next 10 or 15 years. He has everything to be this unique player that soccer needs after these two monsters.”
Mbappe would spend three further years with PSG, not winning either a Ballon d’Or or the Champions League before departing in 2024 for Real Madrid. The Parisians, in their first season without the Frenchman, won their first-ever Champions League while with Real Madrid, he won no major honours in a season he, individually, performed well in.
Real are not a club that are accustomed to missing out on honours and with Xabi Alonso now at the helm, they will surely return to their usual position of contention. From there, Mbappe could well push on for a Ballon d’Or, though it would take an incredible amount of work from any player to supersede Messi’s tally of eight Ballon d’Ors.
( All stats are fromTransfermarktand are correct as of 25/05/2025 )
EPL_Samuel Eto named Related
Samuel Eto'o Named his 'Perfect XI' in 2008 and Included West Ham Cult Hero
Footballing legend Samuel Eto'o once named his ideal 11 of players he shared the pitch with, though there was one inclusion considered surprising.