Predicting a Post-Chelsea Future for Samuel Eto'o
Samuel Eto’o’s hop, skip and jump towards the Chelsea exit door may well have been accelerated this last week. At one point, he seemed on course to extend his stay at Stamford Bridge, but events over the last few days appear to have pushed the Cameroon striker towards a future elsewhere.
The Metro were one source that reported that Eto’o could be set to extend his stay at Stamford Bridge.
Writing in January, Hannah Duncan quoted Mourinho discussing the striker’s future: “He’s comfortable and we’re comfortable. He feels very free and comfortable to make decisions. He feels good, happy. He decided to come here. He’s enjoying his career. At the end of the season we’ll see what he wants to do. Maybe he’ll go to Mallorca, or stay with us or Inter Milan.”
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Despite originally being signed on a one-year deal and being considered as a stopgap measure at the club, Mourinho’s words appeared to indicate that Eto’o had every chance of remaining on the books at Chelsea beyond the World Cup.
Things seem to have fallen apart somewhat since then, however.
This week, Chelsea’s Champions League preparations were compromised following the disclosure of a leaked Jose Mourinho interview. French channel Canal Plus released the interview, in which the Portuguese boss openly questioned the former Barcelona man’s official age.
Mourinho criticised Chelsea’s current stable of goal scorers, before turning his attention to Eto’o (via ESPN): “I have one [goal-scorer] but he is 32, maybe 35, who knows?”
In a press conference ahead of the Galatasaray clash, Mourinho attempted to remedy the wrong that his earlier, embarrassing outburst had caused. The Portuguese boss went into platitude overdrive as he attempted to quell the rumoured discontent on Eto’o’s behalf: "It was with him [Eto’o] that I had the best ever season of my career. He's one of the few players who is working with me at a second different club, and a manager never does that if he doesn't like the player or the person.
"He has no reason to be upset because also, he told a few years ago, that Mourinho is the only manager in the world who I would never play for, and after one year he was playing with me at Inter and now here.
"There is no story, there is no story. I repeat: it was a funny conversation between me and somebody who doesn't belong to the football world."
Despite the manager’s attempts to smooth over the rupture, Eto’o is apparently deeply dissatisfied with Mourinho’s naive statement and has made his displeasure known.
Claude Le Roy, who once managed Eto’o when he was at the helm of the Cameroon national side, suggested to African TV (via the Telegraph) that the striker was “very angry” with Mourinho. Le Roy, who included a precocious 17-year-old Eto’o in the senior national side, contradicted the Chelsea boss’s claims that all was well with the striker and that no damage had been done, by suggesting that the player was deeply dissatisfied with the whole episode.
According to Mourinho, “there is no story,” but in Eto’o’s eyes, there clearly is. It’s hard to see this particular story ending with the African legend committing to an extended stay at Stamford Bridge.
So if Eto’o’s future can’t be forecasted at Chelsea, then where is the Cameroon striker likely to ply his trade for the 2014-15 season?
One option that has been mooted is Mallorca, and the Spanish club are one party who may well be delighted by the recent turn of events in west London and the disintegrating relationship between Eto’o and Mourinho.
Speaking to Spanish radio station Cadena Cope, as reported by Sky Sports, Eto’o explained his son’s desire to return to the Balearic Islands: "My son has pressured me to finish (my career) there. My son is from Mallorca, I'll always like Barca, but I prefer Mallorca."
Having struggled to break into the Real Madrid side as a young player, Eto’o sought pastures new with a £4.4 million switch to Mallorca, finding a new environment where he could make his name. The West African cultivated a close relationship with Bermellones fans and remains the club’s all-time top scorer.
He would be welcomed back with open arms and, if his son’s desires have any sway, may be enticed by the prospect of a return to the club where he truly made his name.
Eto’o is a player who has always had an acute sense of the drama and the theatre of football; in principle, it’s reasonable to imagine that the prospect of completing his career with a perfect circular narrative, of returning to the environs where he made his name, would be an appealing riposte to the high-intensity and cynicism of Chelsea.
However, would a step down to the Segunda Division (assuming Mallorca, who are currently 11th, don’t earn promotion) be a move too far from the limelight for Eto’o? His best is behind him, but at 32, he is not finished, and could surely glitter on a more exalted stage than the Spanish second tier.
He does have previous for leaving the central stream of European football, but whereas the project at Anzhi Makhachkala offered him a lucrative deal and the chance to spend his days with Roberto Carlos, he would choose Mallorca for little more than the sweet smell of nostalgia.
Eto’o has the status and profile, as well as the ability, to command major attention in any number of the world’s leagues.
A move to Major League Soccer has been rumoured, and indeed, it’s hard to see why such a switch wouldn’t make sense. As, arguably, Africa’s greatest-ever player, Eto’o surely has the kind of status and profile that would appeal to the owners of MLS sides.
Dominic Fifield of the Guardian believes that it is a near certainty that Eto’o is MLS-bound following the end of his Chelsea contract this summer. Writing in January, Fifield put: “[Eto’o] is expected to open pre-contract talks with MLS clubs next month before departing for the United States at the end of the campaign.”
Los Angeles Galaxy, DC United and Chivas USA, as well as Seattle Sounders and Chicago Fire, have all been named as potential destinations, while Fifield acknowledges the strong rumours linking him with a move to Ryan Nelsen’s Toronto FC.
Any MLS side to purchase Eto’o would be purchasing a profile to match any that the league has ever known.
I have regularly named Eto’o as Africa’s greatest player of all time and none can match his combined domestic and international honours. The forward has won it all and done it all, and has often been a key figure in his club’s success.
He has won a remarkable treble of Champions League titles, with two different clubs, which is an achievement unparalleled among African players. He hasn’t just won the titles as a passenger, he has consistently changed the complexion of key contests for the benefit of his team, his man-of-the-match showing in the 2006 Champions League Final being just one example.
He is a four-time African Footballer of the Year and the highest all-time scorer for both Cameroon and in the history of the Cup of Nations.
Following the week’s news, it appears unlikely that Eto’o will be extending his stay at Stamford Bridge. Due to his profile and his ability, he is likely to have no shortage of offers, but will he opt for the nostalgic whiff of Mallorca or the glitz and glamour of Major League Soccer?
Doubtless, Eto’o will keep us all guessing until the summer.
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