African legend Samuel Eto'o has written the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately, but the retired Cameroon international has been selected as the next star in our Five Things feature.
The 33-year-old missed practice at Sampdoria twice since joining them in January, but here are five things you may or may not have known about the former FC Barcelona star.
1) When Eto'o began to receive payment for playing football, he earned around $200 a week. His family was incredulous. In an interview, he recalled how his father asked, "Can you really get so much from playing football?" At the peak of his career he would earn $26.8 million per year.
2) During his teenage years, Eto'o was unable to join a French soccer club due to his age and a lack of proper identification. Instead, he became a member of Real Madrid's youth academy in 1997, though he barely played for them and was loaned to multiple clubs throughout the late 1990s.
3) In 2005, during a match with Real Zaragoza, the opposing team's fans made monkey sounds every time Eto'o had the ball, and two of the chanters were given five-month suspensions from sporting events. He has since stopped bringing his family to his football games.
4) He is one of only three players who played for Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Inter Milan. The other two are Luis Figo and the Brazilian legend Ronaldo.
5) Eto'o has won the African Player of the Year award four times – in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2010. He was also the third-place runner-up for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2005. He was a member of the gold medal-winning 2000 Cameroonian Olympic team, and is a two-time Africa Cup of Nations champion. He is Cameroon's all-time leading scorer.
Read: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Yaya Toure
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