a écrit le 13 septembre 2013 à 18h18 If Samuel Eto’o had any worries about returning to football at the highest level then he obviously left them in Russia.
The man who recently took a £10million pay cut is grinning on a couch in the posh bar of a Leicester Square hotel, one arm draped over an author he and his children like, the other is used for the occasional wave at his entourage.
A few moments earlier Evander Holyfield popped in to get a picture. The former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world posted it on Twitter almost immediately. Life is good for Eto’o.
He’ll most likely return to proper club football on Saturday when Chelsea play Everton; the past two years have been spent earning £17m a season – after tax - in Russia
Jose Mourinho was ’60 per cent’ of his motivation to join Chelsea; Eto’o says they ‘were born to win together’, first at Inter Milan and now at Stamford Bridge.
It was all a little less cordial in March 2005 when Eto’o, then playing for Barcelona, who had just been knocked out by Chelsea, charged up to Mourinho in the Stamford Bridge tunnel and spoke his mind: ‘I know you are a great person and a great coach but in truth you are just a s***.'
But all that, Eto’o says, is in the past. The Champions League, Serie A, Italian Cup treble they won together at Inter Milan healed everything.
Besides, Eto’o is in a reflective mood. One of the modern era’s most lethal strikers turned 32 earlier this year and has started to look back in his own unique way. It’s why we’re here, talking about his book, which happens to have been written in the format of a comic with the help of Joelle Esso, whom he approached because her previous work has entertained his four children.
The first of nine volumes is completed, looking at his days growing up in Cameroon, the hours spent sneaking off to play football despite his parents’ desperation for him to study.
There is are a series of revelations about the time he ran away as a 12-year-old while on a football tour of France and made a failed attempt to live with an uncle. It’s different in a nice way, a sensitive touch from a man with a notorious ego and who was labelled as ‘selfish’ by Roberto Carlos this week.
‘What has brought me here is that as a kid I was capable of dreaming,’ Eto’o says. ‘When I stop dreaming my story will be over. I want to tell kids a true story about how a poor kid from a poor neighbourhood achieved something big.
‘I was expected all the time to challenge the best so I want to encourage others to do the same. My first idea
The man who recently took a £10million pay cut is grinning on a couch in the posh bar of a Leicester Square hotel, one arm draped over an author he and his children like, the other is used for the occasional wave at his entourage.
A few moments earlier Evander Holyfield popped in to get a picture. The former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world posted it on Twitter almost immediately. Life is good for Eto’o.
He’ll most likely return to proper club football on Saturday when Chelsea play Everton; the past two years have been spent earning £17m a season – after tax - in Russia
Jose Mourinho was ’60 per cent’ of his motivation to join Chelsea; Eto’o says they ‘were born to win together’, first at Inter Milan and now at Stamford Bridge.
It was all a little less cordial in March 2005 when Eto’o, then playing for Barcelona, who had just been knocked out by Chelsea, charged up to Mourinho in the Stamford Bridge tunnel and spoke his mind: ‘I know you are a great person and a great coach but in truth you are just a s***.'
But all that, Eto’o says, is in the past. The Champions League, Serie A, Italian Cup treble they won together at Inter Milan healed everything.
Besides, Eto’o is in a reflective mood. One of the modern era’s most lethal strikers turned 32 earlier this year and has started to look back in his own unique way. It’s why we’re here, talking about his book, which happens to have been written in the format of a comic with the help of Joelle Esso, whom he approached because her previous work has entertained his four children.
The first of nine volumes is completed, looking at his days growing up in Cameroon, the hours spent sneaking off to play football despite his parents’ desperation for him to study.
There is are a series of revelations about the time he ran away as a 12-year-old while on a football tour of France and made a failed attempt to live with an uncle. It’s different in a nice way, a sensitive touch from a man with a notorious ego and who was labelled as ‘selfish’ by Roberto Carlos this week.
‘What has brought me here is that as a kid I was capable of dreaming,’ Eto’o says. ‘When I stop dreaming my story will be over. I want to tell kids a true story about how a poor kid from a poor neighbourhood achieved something big.
‘I was expected all the time to challenge the best so I want to encourage others to do the same. My first idea
