Who is the greatest African player of all time?
Samuel Eto has a credible case
Samuel Eto’o burst onto the scene at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney where he helped Cameroon to their first and only men’s football gold medal and being subsequently named Young African Player of the Year: 2000.He was also responsible for scoring the famous goal to knockout Brazil out of the 2003 FIFA Confederation in France. Samuel has been around so long that some people sometimes forget just how incredible he is.
In his prime, Eto’o was regarded by pundits as one of the best strikers in the world,he is currently regarded as one of the greatest African players of all time. He is often ranked among the three greatest African strikers, alongside George Drogba and Didier Drogba. But in my view he trumps them both and here’s why:
The Cameroonian has 4 league titles: 3 La Liga and one Seria A with 3 champions leagues and has been named African footballer of the year 4 times in 2003, 04, 05 and 2010. He’s Cameroon’s all time goals scorer with 56 goals in 118 games, and he’s got more 340 goals in his illustrious career including an incredible 108 in 145 league games for Barcelona FC.
In 2010, he became the first player in history to win two European trebles following his back-to-back achievements with Barcelona and Inter Milan. His brilliance on the world stage was also recognized in 2010 FIFA World Cup when he was named the best player at the world cup and received the Golden Ball award, the only African player to win it.
In 2005 he came third in the FIFA World Player of the year award. With 6 appearance in the CAF Team of the Year in 2005, 06, 08, 09, 10 and 2011 and 4 appearances in the ESM Team of the Year topped with two appearance in the FIFPro World XI in 2005 and 2006. These successes attribute to a great modern African footballer that is without mentioning his impeccable AFCON record and for that, in my view Samuel Eto’o is the best footballer to come of the African continent. To sum him up,he was quite simply a magnificent player.
My honorable mentions are: Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba and George Weah.
