Inter forward Samuel Eto'o may be the most successful footballer Cameroon has ever produced, with four Champion's League wins, two African Cup Of Nations and an Olympic gold medal, as well as being his country's highest scorer, but he's clearly not impressing everyone. World Cup legend Roger Milla had this to say on Thursday to Camfoot.com.
”For now, he has brought a lot to Barcelona and Inter Milan, but never to the Cameroon team.He has not yet met expectations. It is also a question of discipline: he has abused the other players a little, which was never seen in the national team! Cameroon is waiting for him to react.”
This is not the first time Milla has criticised Eto'o. Last October, just prior to a crucial qualifier against Morocco, he accused Eto'o of destabilising the team during their somewhat chaotic qualification Campaign.
"People do not want to be logical and tell the truth. When you have a situation that goes wrong in a team, we must lay it bare. People were afraid to say that it is Samuel Eto’o who caused the mess in this team? You talk about 1984; I did not see Njitap, Song or Kameni take precedence over Samuel. Samuel was the problem, we must tell the truth to clear the air."
(1984 are the jersey numbers of the four players Milla mentions, all of whom were blamed for the chaotic opening loss to Togo)
From the outside, Eto'o had a fine campaign, scoring three times and captaining the team in the four game winning streak which took them to the finals. After two successive trebles at club level and going to his third world cup, this time as captain, maybe Eto'o could afford to be the bigger man and brush off Milla's remarks?
But no. Instead he threatened to quit the team on the eve of the World Cup, and threw some shots back at Milla in an interview with Canal Plus.
"Is it worth me going to the World Cup?. I've still got some days to think about it but I'll see if my taking part is important because I don't need this in my career."
"It is always before tournaments that bitter people wake up. What has he [Roger Milla] done? He hasn't won the World Cup. They played in a quarter-final in 1990 and with what a team. They had one of the best teams with some great players throughout."
"It's not because they knew glory at the age of 40 that they can talk. And then you wonder, 'Are they my people?'. Are they really my people? Is it really worth going to the World Cup?"
Unlike after Roy Keane's Saipan rant though, Eto'o got confirmation that he is the Big Man On Campus, with the Cameroonian Minister for Sport Michel Zoah flying to europe to give him a great big hug, and Le Guen naming him as his captain.
So, Milla accuses Eto'o of indiscipline and abusing his position as a leader of the team, and to counter him, Eto'o flies off the handle and threatens to take his ball and go home? Not exactly proving him wrong there, Sam.
