Wednesday 18 February 2009

Eto'o wants to stay next season

Asked about the future of Barcelona forward and Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o (27), the player's agent Josep María Mesalles has said in an interview with Catalan radio station Ona FM and Spanish radio station Cadena Ser that the player wants to continue at Barcelona next season:

"What Samuel wanted to say in that interview is very easy: my future is certain until my contract expires. So he's sure about the near future. Maybe in the end he will want to continue at Barça, but the club won't. We will see what will happen later. You cannot be sure about the future.

We all know Samuel by now. He could have been sneakier and say that this wasn't the moment to talk about that but he never avoids a question. About not wanting to pose with the shirt, he had just finished training and he had taken a shower, so he didn't want to put it on again. On the other hand, it's true that he has always said that he would like to end his career at Mallorca, the club who has a special place in his heart.

Samuel wants to stay with Barça because he's very happy to live in the city of Barcelona and to be a part of a club like Barça. Last year, sadly, the club said that Eto'o had to leave but in the end he stayed. I told him that we had a contract with Barcelona and Samuel stayed and has already scored 23 goals.

The renewal negotiations with the club didn't start yet, so we didn't ask for more money. Until now, Barça didn't approach us, nor did we approach them. It's not in our interest to make the first step, we have a contract and we plan to respect that. There are no negotiations ongoing, but the relations with the club are very good.

I also want to make clear that we didn't have contacts with Real Madrid. What happened is that Eto'o coincidentally met Real Madrid's president at the Euro last summer and there was some joking around. There haven't been any serious negotiations and I never sat around the table to talk with Madrid. We are feeling good at Barcelona and we like to stay at Barcelona."

In an interview with Catalan sports paper Sport, Mesalles also spoke about the future of Eto'o: "The fact that the player wouldn't renew now doesn't mean that he won't continue. He has a contract until 2010 and he has always said that he wants to fulfill it. So there's still a lot of time to think about his future.

I didn't yet receive an offer from the club but if they call me, I will be glad to listen to what they have to say. I don't understand that some assure that he'll leave the club. On the contrary, the player is very happy at Barcelona. You can only have scored 23 goals at this stage of the season if you are playing at a club where you feel happy."

Read more:
Eto'o: "I already made a decision on my future"
Eto'o wants to negotiate renewal in the summer
Eto'o: "I can still go higher"

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope it's true!
If he goes to milan on a free transfer(like suggested in la gazetta) he will leave a bad taste in my mouth forever.

One thing is for sure, I don't think frank rijkaard will want to work with him and I'm pretty sure he'll go to milan!

I think the fans' support for him will be vital.

kamikaze kontiki said...

This is really starting to leave a bad taste in the mouth now. Starting to look like all Eto'o wanted to do was prove how valuable he can be n then turn his back on the club as revenge for trying to sell him last season.

Anonymous said...

hmm. if its a revenge mission, he would be "right", but I think we cant really predict the guy. We also didnt handle the trio's (R10, Deco & Sammu)situation carefully last summer. They must have felt terribly low. Well, 2wrongs would never make a right. So, lets hope has good plans for Barca.

And I think we nned to "learn" how to end relationships better. Maradona & R10 comes to mind. Messi & co. needs better examples

Anonymous said...

ok this is off topic but pep i have a quote of the day for you. arjen robben: "Messi is the best in the world, he does things that only he can do".

here is the source:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1705/real-madrid/2009/02/17/1114228/real-madrid-must-beat-liverpool-by-two-goals-at-bernabeu-robben

Unknown said...

Eto’o wants revenge, remember Barcelona put him down last year and he prove them very wrong and now he wants to show them that they were wrong and go for other club for nothing, remember he said last year he was injured and it had take him long to recover, but however Barcelona was not patient with him now he has his chance to make them feel what he was feeling when he was the other side of the table

H said...

before i say anything , i wan't u to know i'm not a racist and i have lots of black friends .

the same thing almost always happens with african strikers , im sure you heard the adebayor , drogba saga in the summer.
what they all have in commen is bad temper , bad comments in really bad times , holding their clubs for ransome and they all threaten to leave if they are not paid.

i know some may say that he speaks the truth , speaks from his heart and i agree with them BUT not all truth should be said.

caceres and hleb are good players but are playing badly so is it okay to say the so called TRUTH and say that they suck in a news confrense.

face it guys , he's out for revenge but you either want to justify it or afraid to admit it.

as for me, i've lost all love for him and if he hates the club he's free to leave.

if you've got messi on your right henry on your left , xavi and andres on your back you'd be a total idiot not to score.

Rory said...

not to get particularly political, but when you start a comment with "i'm not racist..." then the comments probably a sweeping overgeneralization based on race.

you've got three examples of supposedly "bad tempers" of the many, many, many african strikers out there. It's just as possible to say that strikers have bad tempers and use those three "I'm not racist against strikers, but..." or consider how ugly it got with ronaldinho or many other sports stars who aren't african.

it isn't his race. It's his competitive drive--which is key to him being a top player, but also why a lot of top players in sports do/say stupid stuff.

J said...

And dear hamad_ali,

What do you have to say about Kanouté? Or Mamadou Niang? (just 2 random examples that poppedi nto my head) And we don't see white strikers demanding pay rises or losing their temper do we? And why is it that only African _strikers_ are such nasty people? Why not midfielders & defenders too? Do they only let angry people become strikers in Africa?

Also, Eto'o said not a single word about Hleb or Cáceres. It was his agent who was out of line criticising Hleb.

kamikaze kontiki said...

I thought that was Yaya's agent.

I d probably say that Eto'o seems a little more vindictive and insecure than other players. Still its difficult to see how this can be connected to his race.

Did you think of the same thing when he shouted "madrid cabron" into the mike?

His reaction even if it is for revenge is a human and natural one and something most of us are not above. The point of course is whether such an attitude is beneficial for the club or not. We have certainly reaped dividends from it this season.

Anonymous said...

maybe they feel undervalued. Michael Owen on 120k/week and Oba Martins on 60k/week. Lamps on 140ok/week and Drog on 10k/week..Whose noise are we likely gonna hear? "The afican striker" of course.
I think its not about race really. If its race related, then why not african defenders/midfielders? Eto is just a very "sensitive" guy. And his case is different from adebayors.
Note: am not saying sammu is always right.

Anonymous said...

**Lamps on 140k/week & Drog on 100K/week

H said...

like i said not all african players are bad kieta for example is as humble as u can get, i was only indecating that the same thing happened with other world class african strikers .

and about hleb and caceres , it was just an example that not everything that is true can be said in public

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