Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona forward and Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o (27) has decided to leave Barcelona after the events of the last months.
With the decision taken, the Cameroonian wishes to accelerate the negotiations because he wants to start the pre-season with his new club, allowing him to get back to his best physical condition as soon as possible. Inter Milan and AC Milan would have made him the best offers, although the Chelsea option is not to be excluded yet.
Eto'o has asked for a meeting with Barcelona officials tomorrow to discuss, together with his agent Josep María Mesalles, the offers he has received over the last months and to see what's the best option for both the player and the club. Eto'o wants Barcelona to receive the right transfer price for his transfer.
Barcelona economic vice president confirmed in an interview with Catalan radio station RAC 1 that a meeting is scheduled: "We have received several offers. We will talk in the coming days."
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Good. I wish him all the best in his new home, and I'm glad he's being a grownup about this all.
Sammy is a great and world class player who is capable of playing in the first 11 players in Heaven. "Move on Lion" I am happy for you leaving because BARCA will never be a great team again. Rather than staying there wasting your time and skills, men you got to move on and win titles somewhere. Shame to BARSA. Some of the empty pocket and large mouth fans have their Gods to insults your personality.
Such a shame, Guardiola could ahve won him back for the team, that's so sure. Now we're stuck with Henry who clearly cannot play in a team where not every pass coming from midfield should go to him. Frustrating!!!
Eto'o hasn't been fit in two years, and that is unfortunate for both the player and the club. Eto'o is worth as much as any top class striker when he is fit and on form. Barca will not be compensated that well right now because we want to sell, and Eto'o is not in top form. Fans will likely be dissapointed with the fee we get for him.
Even though I know he must go for the sake of the team I can't help but feel a pit in my throat. Eto'o's irreplaceable! It will be a long, long time before we ever see another #9 quite like him. The day he leaves I will have tears in my eyes. And I will support him and root for him wherever he winds up. Despite his "theatrics" he'll go down as one of the all-time Barcelona greats, the numbers speak for themselves! Like the old saying goes, you never truly appreciate someone until they are gone.
Sport are not a reliable source. They have NEVER been.
Calm down, everyone. Remember. Our system got goals for Gudjohnsen, for chrissake. Eto'o isn't irreplacable. That's true of every player in the side.
As for the comment that "BARCA will never be a great team again," if that happens it won't be because we got rid of Eto'o. And "greatness" is a subjective term. Many don't even consider the Champions League winners a great side, that we haven't been truly great for decades. Dunno.
Interested folks should look at ESPN Soccernet, and stats for Henry and Messi from last season. Here, I'll help you out: Henry: 37 games, 17 goals, 20 assists. And that's while learning to be a left winger. Messi: 33 games, 16 goals, 26 assists. And yet, the latter is a god, while the former is a bust? Come on.
Eto'o is a great striker. Our system helped him as much as he helped us, however. Does he score as many goals without the assistance of Messi, Ronaldinho, Deco, Xavi and (last season) Henry? No, because a striker is only as good as his service.
He'll move on, he may or may not be happy. We'll get another striker who will pour in goals just like Eto'o did, and in a few years, when he moves on, we'll see the same comments about that player. It's the nature of fans.
Sport is generally unreliable, but it's no secret that Eto'o is for sale, and that this is the year we'd love to sell him.
Samuel has decided to leave? What a lot of bullshit. He's forced out of the club.
Disgrace!
Barca's new moto should be: "Great club-stupid board". I must agree with most of you guys especially with comment above. He's forced out. Barca won't have another No.9 that good. Barca aiming Adebayor and Berbatov->those guys can't play for Barca B. Such a shame. Henry as forward? His time's past few years ago.
now it is time for adebayor..it will be good if he will go to chelesa and chelsea give us malpuda plus cash..i read about this in one page..
malouda*
Eto'o is my favorite player and I am sad that he is leaving. But I think its great that he doesnt do problems to the club and he wants us to get the best money...what a difference if you compare it with Deco or Ronaldinho.
To Kxevin, I think you are underestimating Eto'o's abilities greatly. If he had everything served to him on a silver platter at Barcelona how do you explain his excellence prior to joining the club AND for his national Cameroonian side? To say Barcelona "made" him the player he is today is a farse! Eto'o was pumping in goals for Mallorca way before he joined Barcelona! And last year, at the age of only 26, he became the African Cup of Nations all-time goalscorer! I don't remember seeing Ronaldinho or Messi out there on the pitch providing him service?
Sometimes you just have to give great players their due. Product of the system? Nonsense! Adebayor is not even qualified to carry Eto'o's jock strap! One good season and now he's considered the sh*t! Try doing it for almost a decade, like Eto'o and then we'll have something to talk about!
Malouda? What a joke!
AdeWhyor? Don't make laugh.
Chelsea will pay us good money for Samuel?
Yeah, we saw what they paid for Deco. Our incompetent board (read Txiki) will sell him for peanuts. That goes for Ronaldinho too.
All Europe laughs at us.
I agree with the posts above saying that Eto'o is a great striker with or without Barca. He proved that with Cameroon and with Mallorca. However since his knee injury he has simply not been the same. Eto'o was ALWAYS about his blistering pace, nobody could catch him.....nobody. Once he was off, that was it. That is gone now, he is still very fast, but its just not the same! Whether or not he will ever get it back i dont know, but he has not been the same Eto'o he was before. Yes, he will still get a lot of goals and I would def keep him over Ade but maybe the board know something we do not. Maybe his injury is not getting any better and they figure they should sell him now while they still can.
Im sure you all remember the moment in the CL semis against Man utd when he broke against Ferdinand and he couldnt beat him for pace. 2 years ago he would have left Ferdinand for dead....
What a shame, finally the moment I was afraid of has come....
How much did Barca pay to buy him originally? Does anyone know?
Eto'o transferred to Barcelona in the summer of '04 for €24.
Note that I said "Eto'o is a great striker." There's no debating that. I also said that "our system helped him as much as he helped us." This is also true.
But he is replacable. This situation needs perspective. Who would have predicted, for example, that Ronaldinho would become what he now is? Not I, certainly. And yet, there he is.
We don't know what goes on behind the scenes. So prima facie, selling Eto'o is a stupid decision, right? And yet, we are selling him. Or I should write, a coach who believes in a strong locker room is selling him. Which means what?
We don't know, but we can make inferences. I'm not saying Eto'o doesn't have talent. I'm saying that if we can't keep him, or don't want to for reasons that we can't know, now is the time to sell him, unless we want to keep him, then lose him on free transfer, or sell him for 5 or 6 million, like Gio Dos Santos.
None of this takes into account his off-pitch volatility. Most recently he head-butted that journalist. But don't forget the history of such incidents, beginning before Mallorca. And how many other Barca players have refused to come on as a substitute, as Eto'o did for reasons that he still hasn't adequately explained?
And he's tops at the ACN, with 14 goals. That's not a lot, against uneven talent, on one of the stronger sides.
At Mallorca, over four seasons he had 54 goals in 132 appearances. Over the same span for us, he had 77 goals in 108 appearances. The difference is service, and the talent around him. No Ronaldinho, Messi or Deco at Mallorca.
Don't forget that between he, Ronaldo and Raul, Eto'o was the one deemed expendable. Tell me he isn't a better striker than Raul, and creaky Ronaldo. So what's going on?
I don't care if people are fans of a certain player. That's fine. I'm a fan of Eto'o, as well. But there's a reason he's for sale, despite his brilliance. Someone mentioned his lost step(s). This is very true. His first touch also got sloppy last season.
If we're going to rebuild, let's do it right.
Oh, he was originally signed for 24million Euros.
They call you what "Kxevin" It sounds like shit. You are just too blind concerning Eto`s issue. I don`t even know where you come from. What is really your background? Just to make empty noise as a fan or what is your intellectual capability? Have you ever been to college or just a drop out? You sound so stupid without a sense of direction about Eto.
Just letting you know "Kxevin" that the comment above wasn't "me". We may have our differences but I choose not to swing below the belt. I would rather like to think that we can agree to disagree in a respectfull manner (as with anyone else on here) without having to come to direct verbal blows. I do see your point I just happen to think you are oversimplifying and underestimating the potential loss of Eto'o (pitch wise) on the team. Even if he has lost a step or two he's still better than 95% of the strikers out there. I'm not infering that he should stay, I am just trying to magnify the loss and void his absence would create on the team, again (pitch wise.) Sure he has brought a lot of this upon himself and he needs to be a man and take responsibility for his own actions - but I have yet to come across a player as emotional as Eto'o who is so passionate and determined to win and takes losing so personally. Even his harshest critics would have to concede him that.
Eto'o and Ronaldinho need to stay!
Fuck yeah they need to stay! If Eto'o leaves that means that we'll bid 38 m euro for adebayor! thats a joke and an insult to all Barca fans out there! If they sell Eto'o they'll probably let him go for i'd say 15-20 m euro tops. meanwhile we're gonna spend 38 MILLION EURO ON ADEBAYOR!?!?.. thats just stupid in my opinion. we should just keep Eto'o, it would save us a lot of money AND we would have a BETTER striker.
now to replace him with diego milito
we could get him for only about 10-15 million euros
top notch
Kxevin, I have read past and present comments that you made being insulting to the personality of Eto. If you are taking Eto`s personal life to be yours, then you are making a fatal mistake that could be detrimental to you. You should be very careful about this Eto issue with Barsa. This could really lead to personal face to face confrontations. You don`t know the capabilities and powers of all those who make comments on this page. This should be the end and just mind your business. Don`t write any comment about Eto again else you will be thrown into a dogma. Is that right!
what the fuck was that all about, you sound like you think your a jedi or something!! i agree with kxevin etoo was a great player but he was also disruptive. if barca get better fitness and locker room harmony (neither of which are etoo's strong points) then they have the quality to achieve. plus i thought the whole reason we are looking at over-rated players like ade and berbatov was cause pep wanted big strong striker with skill who can also be an aerial threat, as a good as etoo was he was never that
Uh oh, the Eto'o curse! I'll take my chances with that one. Oh, and I'm a journalist. I run an entertainment section with a staff of five, based in Chicago. Look me up any time. I'm also a soci, and am pretty sure that if you cut me, it would run blaugrana. Note that I choose to use a name to post, as well. I'm a fan of transparency. You'll also find me over at the Offside blog, on the Barcelona page.
No offense taken, anyone. Debate is like that, and players and player decisions are rather intense. And again, so we're clear. Eto'o is a great striker. But at some point, we have to trust the people who know better than us to assemble a team. And those people are Guardiola and his technical staff.
Perhaps if I knew the full backstory, their decision would be clearer. But none of us do, so all we can go on is what we read, and statistics.
We are looking at the likes of (yes, overpriced) Berbatov and Adebayor because in the past two seasons, we have gone out against Premiership sides in the Champions League. Our array of talented midgets have passed the ball around and looked pretty, but haven't tallied any goals. So the technical staff seem to think that the answer is a proven Premiership scorer. It's hard to argue with that. The argument is the price. Berbatov and Adebayor can knock in goals against Premiership opposition. They know how to do it.
I don't think either player is worth more than 25 million. But the market is crazy right now. If Zenit think Arshavin is worth 25 million, then Adebayor is definitely worth 38 million. Now both Arsenal and Zenit are crazy, but we want 40 million for Eto'o, whose best years are behind him.
Are we just as crazy? Who knows.
As Samuel L. Jackson would say, "Everyone needs to calm the f*ck down!" There's no need to threaten people on here for voicing their own personal opinion! If we all agreed on everything this would be one boring forum! I don't agree with some of "Kxevin" comments either but he's far from the only one that I happen to disagree with from time to time. And some times I find myself agreeing with him as well.
It would be nice if some of you could be more open minded, and more tolerant to other people's opinions instead of being so narrowminded. You just might learn something in the process! Everyone thinks they have all the answers - if that was the case we would all be running our on clubs by now instead of being a bunch of blogging posers!
etoo is the best no 9 we have ....but if they r selling him...sell him around 45m..cos he is worth that much ...
and we should not waste our monry on ade ....even drogba for exch with chelsea or mario gomez would be better....
WE need eto'o to stay ... my reasoning is that we didnt get benzema for this year .... WHY SPEND so much money on hit n MIss adeWHYhor when we can save that money let eto;o play out next season and pick up benzema and/or villa for next season meanwhile bojan will be nice n ready for first team play after next season ... JUST A THOUGhT
NOW IF YOUR GONNA SPEND WHY NOT ON A SURETHING LIKE KLASS"**CLASS**"HUNTELAAR with van der vaart and hernanes and prob helb and rap up this speculation business ...i wana see MY barca play already and take europe n the liga...
i do not thing that eto'o should leave but if we are going to buy a new attacking midfilder and propably a new left wing (even i thing is not needed) and guardiola has his prime striker henry then eto'o isn't going to play anyhow.. as first sub bojan and if is true that quardiola whant a taal body then we we should keep on eto'o and drop his price more.. i think that he is the best striker of all.. but if the manager prefers henry then he should go now.. for the best posible price.. we also do not know the exact formation tha the team is going to use and a form with messi henry and eto'o can't work. no one is using his head and all three of them prefer to pass the ball than shoot.. that i think was last years barca's problem... kempe cyprus..
i also do NOT want ande or berpa.... houndelaar is better i think.. kempe cyprus..
Kxevin the note below is a reply to your note,
I hardly reply to comments, but i am replying to your email. You said Henry assisted other players in scoring and Messi as well, but you failed to give data on howmany goals Eto scored las year. This is a lad that came out of injury an immidiately cruxified great teams like Valencia, with 2 superb individual goals. After, he went to afica nation cup, scored 5 goals and was the highest goal scorer. When he returned to Bacerlona and at the end of the year, he played approximately 18 matches and scored 17 goals with FC Barcelona, and gave many assist as well, you need to be updated, when it comes to given assist, he is too ganerous, remember, even the very last game fc bacerlona playe last year that Geovani got a had trick, it was thanks to his assist.
Now, he (Eto) that played 18 matches and scored 17 goals with Henry and Messi that played more tan he did and scored less than him, who is better, and don't forget, he was injured for more than 4 months.....?
Try to be objective next time when writing.
Well, it's hard to precisely respond to yet another Anonymous, but I repeat: Eto'o is a great striker. Of course he scores goals, and lots of them. That's his job.
My Henry comment/statistical analysis was in direct reply to a comment about his ineffectiveness. No comparison to Eto'o was meant or implied.
If Eto'o scored goals, stayed healthy and kept his mouth shut, he wouldn't be for sale, I think. But of late, he's only accomplished one of the three.
But given the turmoil in the front office, he might be staying put at any rate, so everyone will get their wish.
i will have to say that what kxevin says is true and i also have to say that i agree with some of the anonymous comments.. No one is 100% correct!! but that is ok!! henry did helped so as messi and eto'o.. but all of them was out for long periods exept henry but he was of position and in pain (back) the hole season.. from the three only eto'o was saying stuff that have hurt the dressing room harmony.. but my opinion is that eto'o is the best striker.. but he get's most of his chanses becouse other team consentrate mainly on messi and also on henry..
kempe cyprus.. eto'o must stay..
let him go we need better e.g david villa
do not let Eto'o leave Barca. because he's the best stickers.
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