Eto’o advances with a new African Cup of Nations record
Africa’s reigning all-time top scorer in the history of the Nations Cup, Samuel Eto’o Fils, yesterday added another profile to his unbeaten record after helping his country Cameroon to the quarter-finals of the ongoing competition in Angola. He scored the equalizer for his team in the 1st minute of the second half after Cartridge Eagles of Tunisia took the lead in the first half. The match eventually finished 2-2 to ensure Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and Chipolopolo of Zambia progressed to the quarter-finals.
Samuel Eto’o earlier scored in their second game against Zambia to take his goal tally to 17, but with his goal against Tunisia yesterday he now has 18 goals. Before he burst onto the African Cup of Nations scene, the highest goalscoring record was 14 goals, which was set and held by Ivory Coast’s Laurent Poco. But at the 2008 Ghana Cup of Nations, that record was broken by Eto’o. I remember predicting that he was likely to break his own record this year and he just did: with 18 goals in his kitty, it will remain a tall order for anyone looking to match and break that record. This young man came into the football limelight at the 2000 Nigeria/Ghana Cup of Nations and has not stopped scoring great and exciting goals ever since.
I can almost hear you asking what is so special about this guy; Let me just answer that. He displayed a very embarrassing record – three times winner of the African Footballer of the Year award, 2 Cup of Nations trophies (Nigeria/Ghana 2000 and Mali 2002), all-time top scorer in the history of the African Cup of Nations (18 goals), gold from Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Olympics medalist, two-time UEFA Champions with FC Barcelona of Spain (2006 and 2009), UEFA Super Cup winner, several domestic and FA titles with FC Barcelona, etc. He has really achieved a lot as far as African football is concerned.
Age is one of this player’s strengths and if he holds up like his colleague Roger Miller, he might just stay there for 3 or more editions of the competition; and if he does, what will that mean? Of course, he would score more goals: he might just score 30 goals, which would be difficult for any player to equal or break, given how long it took him to break the record set by Laurent Poco. The likes of Nigeria’s Rashid Yekini and Ivory Coast’s Joel Tiehi tried to break that record, but the most they could do was come close. Eto’o has undoubtedly proved that he is a force to be reckoned with in African football, whose record is yet to be equaled by any player from the continent. George Weah has won the FIFA African Footballer, European Footballer and World Footballer of the Year awards as well as the UEFA Champions League, but compare that to Eto’o’s records listed above and decide for yourself who you think is the greatest footballer of Africa for all time.
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