The Cameroonian international has revealed that he used to hate Jose Mourinho before working alongside him at Inter Milan.
Samuel Eto’o was part of Mourinho’s treble winning team in the 2009/2010 season and the player performed convincingly despite being played out of position. He was part of a deal that took Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona and was thought to be his replacement at Inter.
It was during this time Eto’o’s opinion of Mourinho changed but before then, largely due to the rivalry with Barcelona when he was last Chelsea manager, the striker once said he wouldn’t consider playing for him.
‘Before meeting at Inter, we didn’t know each other personally, so our relationship was tense,’ Eto’o told The Sun. ‘I even said one time that I’d never play for a club where Jose was coach.
‘But God knows best. He wanted to show me that I was wrong and today Jose is a friend. Now he’s my coach again.’
the player has frequently been accused of being problematic influence and this is rumoured to be the reason why he had to leave Barcelona but at Inter his commitment was clear for all to see.
Eto’o was strongly linked with Chelsea ias the club searched for a new striker in 2006, Adriano was also under consideration but Adriy Shevchenko was eventually signed for £30m.
Eto’o arrived at Stamford Bridge from Anzhi Makhachkala for £7 million at the end of the transfer window following the club’s inability to tempt Rooney away from Old Trafford.