Eto’o Leads Barcelona’s Triumph

This means that Africans don’t always get a fair deal despite their talents and even when they show their mettle or earn their spurs

[Sports: Soccer]

Barcelona went wild with joy May 27, when the referee blew the final whistle at the Olympic Stadium of Rome, Italy.

Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o Fils and his teammates of FC Barcelona, Spain, had just overshadowed and graded down Manchester United 2-0, winning the European Soccer Champions League, one of the most prestigious titles in soccer.

Eto’o, a son of the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, blazed the trail for FC Barcelona’s victory and triumph by scoring in the 10th minute and reversing the course of the game which had been dominated for the previous eight minutes in a by Cristiano Ronaldo and his Manchester United.

Man United were so rattled and somewhat paralyzed until the end of the game by Eto´o goal that all their chances of recovering from the staggering blow in the 10th minute kept diminishing.

Mastery of technical skills and sprightliness on the part of the Catalonian soccer players trumped and prevailed over truculence and nonchalance on the part of the soccer players of Manchester United.

The European Soccer Champions League is the most prestigious competition involving soccer teams in Europe. FC Barcelona has notched up this trophy thrice already: in 1992, in 2006 and yesterday in Rome.

The Catalonian squad have also chalked up three other titles this year: The Spanish Championship; the Spanish Cup of the King; and yesterday’s Champions League trophy. Guardiola, FC Barcelona’s coach stated after the final: “We are not the best team in history; but we played the best season in history to win the three titles.”

Indeed, the Portuguese, Cristiano Ronaldo and company of Man United found their match last night in Rome during that Champions League final. Barring the first eight minutes of the game, it was really a nightmare for ManU. to have been nudged into taking a practical field course in latter-day soccer from Barcelona’s Eto’o, Messi, Iniesta and Henry.

Eto’o and company demonstrated that latter-day soccer on the pitch revolves around technical skills, stamina, fastness and sprightliness, tactical regrouping in the midfield and before one’s goalkeeper, as well as commitment. Meanwhile Ronaldo and his teammates evinced more toughness and nonchalance. 

Yesterday’s soccer encounter in Rome clearly revealed the class difference between the exceptional and sprightly soccer players such as Eto’o, Messi, Iniesta and Henry on the one hand, and good but nonchalant soccer players such as Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

In the 70th minute Messi, the dazzling midfielder from Argentina and of FC Barcelona blighted Manchester United’s hope of equalizing.

Once again, Eto’o proved yesterday that he deserves to be designated the world’s most valuable soccer player of the year – like the exceptional Mister George Weah of Liberia and of New York in the 1990s.

By the way, Thierry Henry, the French distinguished striker and teammate of Eto’o, said many months back that Eto’o would have already been designated the world’s most valuable soccer player of the year if he were Brazilian.

This means that Africans don’t always get a fair deal despite their talents and even when they show their mettle or earn their spurs. 

 

 

Black Star News columnist and news analyst Mathias Victorien Ntep is a PhD researcher at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany, and at the Leiden University, Netherlands. He played soccer for “Sportfreunde Schwanheim” in the Main-Taunus-District League in Greater Frankfurt in the late 1990s.

 

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