Enough is not made of Samuel Eto’o, and his back-to-back trebles

Enough is not made of Samuel Eto’o, and his back-to-back trebles.

A team winning their domestic league, primary domestic cup, and Champions League in the same season is a rarer occurrence in football, talk more of a back-to-back scenario.

Eto’o was a key member for two of those teams in consecutive seasons; he was amongst the Guardiola’s Barcelona side of the late 2000s/early 2010s, widely regarded as one of the ever most excellent club sides.

Messi was on the game as the world best. Xavi and Andres Iniesta were the brains delivering the tiki-taka revolution that swept the world of football. Dani Alves made everyone re-evaluate the modern full-back role, while Carles Puyol’s heart-on-sleeve defending ensured that, for all their flair and fancy, Barca had become unplayable. Every great side needs a clinical No9, and in Eto’o, The Cameroonian legend, Barcelona had one of the very best finishers of the modern era. He plundered 30 league goals from 36 games in 2008/09, scoring six goals in a successful Champions League campaign, including the opener in the final against Man United in Rome.

Barca’s manager at the time, Pep Guardiola, believed in the power of a cohesive unit and even as Eto’o was an undeniably world-class goalscorer, he was not as adept at implementing the tiki-taka philosophy, just Like most out-and-out strikers, he had a selfish side.

Guardiola believed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the ideal center-forward for his system, and so he persuaded the board to sign the enigmatic Swede from Inter Milan.

The Serie A club negotiated so that Eto’o was part of the deal, and so, after scoring 130 goals in 199 games, he traded Nou Camp for San Siro. And as of then, Diego Milito had already established himself as Inter’s primary goalscorer, but Eto’o also contributed with 16 goals in his debut season.

Even though he didn’t do well in front of the goal, He scored some decisive winners — none more important than his 78th strike at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League round of the 16-second leg.

The Serie A title race went down to the final week, and so the trophies came in one glorious rush. A Mourinho masterclass.

Suddenly, setting records, Eto’o had won back-to-back trebles with two different clubs and played a key role in each. We may not see another player complete back-to-back trebles with two different clubs in our lifetime.