Films : Eto’o the child king, an exclusive documentary by Canal+ Sport

On January 5, Canal+ Sport announced, as a prelude to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), the broadcast of an exclusive documentary series on the life of Cameroonian international footballer Samuel Eto’o. An ad that had the effect of a bomb on social networks if we refer to the number of shares and reactions that the ad aroused. An obvious enthusiasm because the Cameroonian goleador had just been elected president of the coveted Cameroonian Football Federation (Fécafoot), after a campaign and an election full of suspense and tension.

Alternating between interviews and retrospectives of the great moments of his career, this documentary series was able to present us in a warm atmosphere, the man behind the character. Indeed, Samuel Eto’o has been passionate about football since he was a child. At the age of 14, following a trip with the Brasseries du Cameroun football school in Paris, Eto’o takes off and abandons his entire team in the hope of being able to join a french training center and rub shoulders with the best young Europeans. The adventure came to an end because the repression against illegal immigrants at that time was ruthless. He spent almost 3 months locked up without being able to go to school or play football. He decides to return to Cameroon. Following his career at the KSA (Kadji Sport Academy) and a victory in the Cameroon Cup, he flew to Madrid in 1997 where he joined Real Madrid at the age of 16. The debut was difficult for the young man who was struggling to win. It wasn’t until the year 2000 and his move to Real Mallorca that he could express himself at club level and explode.

The testimonies of these colleagues and friends of football, among whom (Fernando Hierro, Ronaldinho, Fabio Capello, Xavi, Lionel Messi, Javier Zanetti, Joan Laporta) demonstrate how much he is respected and loved despite his divisive side. The most striking episode of this documentary series is certainly the one which returns to the Zaragoza-Barcelona match in 2006. During this championship match, nearly 500 Real Zaragoza fans start shouting like a monkey in the goal of injure the goléador. This racist act shows the courage of Samuel Eto’o, ready to put an end to the meeting to make these racist supporters understand the immorality of their actions. This is how Carles Puyol, emblematic player of FC Barcelona and captain at the time, said “My colleagues and I weren’t up to the task that day. […] We all had to get out of the field and show proof of this. of zero tolerance for racism”.

This documentary series has brilliantly presented the portrait of a man that some love and others hate. Moreover, several heated debates started on social networks, after the broadcast of the series, between fanatics and detractors of the capital 9 as it is affectionately called in Cameroon. But as Olivier Madiba, Founder of the Kiro’o Games company put it, “Eto’o is not a model because he had money abroad. He is a model because ‘he showed that we can be Cameroonian born in mediocrity and be excellent. He shows us that we can believe in excellence and that we must fight so that future Eto’o do not have to to travel”.

Etoo n’est pas un modèle parce qu’il a eu l’argent dehors,

Il est un modèle parce qu’il a montré qu’on peut être Kmer né dans la médiocrité et être excellent,

Il nous montre qu’on peut croire en l’excellence et qu’il faut se battre pour que les next etoo n’aient pas à voyager https://t.co/36S61dVvwv

— Madiba Olivier (@madibaOlivier) January 7, 2022

Upcoming reruns :

Tuesday January 11, 2022 at 11:32 p.m. on Canal + Sport 4

Wednesday January 12, 2022 at 8:18 am on Canal + Sport 4

Fred Mekono-Ottou (Interns)