Samuel Eto'o

It is quite mind-boggling to think what more Samuel Eto'o will achieve in his career. Already he has an Olympic Gold Medal, has been named African Footballer of the Year on no less than three occasions, been part of a Cameroon side that has won the African Nations Cup twice, in addition to having won the Champions League and La Liga with Barcelona.

Eto'o was born in Nkon and headed to Real Madrid as a teenager after impressing in a junior tournament, but those at the Bernabeu were never fully convinced of Eto's qualities. So he was loaned out to Spanish second division outfit Leganes in 1997/8 scoring 3 goals in 28 matches and when he returned he was farmed off to another La Liga team Mallorca, it was here that Eto'o began to make a name for himself, in all he scored 54 goals in 101 matches, making him the club's all time leading goalscorer. It was that form that persuaded Barcelona to pay 24 million euros for him, the Catalan club's attention suddenly revived Real Madrid's interest in the Cameroonian however the strong-minded Eto'o was adamant he was going nowhere but the Camp Nou and that is where he ended up. His form for Barcelona has been quite simply sensational, in his first season 2004/5, he scored 24 goals from 36 games, incredibly the following season he exceeded that effort managing 26 goals from 34 matches, enough to make him Spain's leading scorer.

There are not many international players who make their debut for their country at 15 but Eto'o did, coming on as a substitute against Costa Rica in 1997 and a year later he was at the World Cup in France playing against Italy in a game the Indomitable Lions lost 3-0. Eto'o had to wait unti 2000 before he got his first international goal, against the Ivory Coast, but since then he has been a regular goalscorer with 24 goals in 64 matches, scoring goals in the World Cup, the Confederations Cup and the African Nations Cup where he finished as the tournament top scorer in 2006 though he was also unfortunate enough to miss the decisive penalty in a shoot-out loss to the Ivory Coast in the quarter final. However that is one of the few disappointments that Eto'o has had to endure in his incredible career so far and frighteningly for the world's defenders he is still only 25, if Eto'o stays free of serious injury he could go on to be Africa's greatest ever player, not bad for someone who Real Madrid didn't consider good enough to get into their first team.