Player Profile

Cameroon’s captain, talisman, all-time top scorer and most famous player, Eto’o threw his team’s preparations into chaos by threatening to pull out of the World Cup after being criticised by Cameroon’s 1990 World Cup hero Roger Milla.

The Cameroonian minister for sport travelled to Italy to assure Eto’o he had the full backing of the country’s government.

A three-time African footballer of the year, Eto’o won the Treble with Inter Milan in May and became a Champions League winner for the third time.

He joined Inter in 2009 after five years at Barcelona, where he scored over 100 goals, won the Champions League twice (scoring in both finals) and the Spanish title three times.

Since making his Cameroon debut aged only 15, Eto’o has established himself as one of Africa’s best ever players. He was the youngest participant in the 1998 World Cup, when he featured at the age of 17.

Four years later, he scored against Saudi Arabia – his only goal of the tournament and Cameroon’s only win. Eto’o is the only player in the current Cameroon squad to have scored in a World Cup.

He has won the Africa Cup of Nations twice and his 18 goals in the tournament makes him its all-time top scorer. He also won Olympic gold in 2000.

Eto’o scored nine goals in Cameroon’s World Cup qualification campaign, during which he replaced Rigobert Song as skipper and was the team’s inspiration as they bounced back from a poor start to their second qualifying group to reach the finals.

He was involved in an altercation with a reporter in June 2008. He later apologised after allegedly headbutting the journalist, and offered to pay his medical expenses.