Cameroon's soccer team captain Samuel Eto'o Fils has taken a lot of flag since last week.
The Cameroonian super star player arrived Yaounde, and brought a lot of baggage. First, he had a confrontation with Alexandre Song, an equally talented player on the rise. Alex Song famously refused to shake Eto'o's hand when prompted, infuriating the Indomitable Lions captain.
The incident required a crises meeting called by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Michel Zoa, to bring Eto'o back into the fold.
Alex Song, and Samuel Eto'o Fils, who play for English Premier League team Arsenal, and Italian Serie A Club Internazionale respectively, are both at the very top of their game, and athletes in such positions have notoriously outsized egos. A Minister alone could never diffuse the time bomb as these two heavyweights measured up each other. A whole ad hoc committee was what it took to calm nerves down.
In the end, Eto'o prevailed and Song was excused from the Indomitable Lions for their match against Senegal in Yaounde on May 04 2011, part of the qualifying games for the African Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012.
Cameroon did not win the match, a result viewed as a loss by local fans of the Indomitable Lions. Some took to the streets and it is being reported that as many as four people lost their lives in riots following this game.
Samuel Eto'o has emerged as the one polarizing figure who somehow finds his way into every conversation in Yaounde, Douala, or Yokadouma. Wealthy, fit, very well spoken, and photogenic, this Cameroonian star is here to stay, and he is slowly moving away from the football pitch to other areas, diversifying his holdings from Nightclubs like Katios in Yaounde to vast real estate investments on the Atlantic ocean shores in Kribi
One cannot help but wonder what the presidential elections in Cameroon would look like if Eto'o decides to run as a candidate. He certainly stands a good chance. But is he ready to leave his hefty salary and endorsements and pick a fight with incumbent for the past 29 years, Paul Biya. Though iya is of a generation like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ben Ali of Tunisia, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen that are prehistoric and decidedly being kicked out by their own people, they will fight, until humiliated and brought down like Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire.
Eto'o may yet be the solution to Cameroon's problems. Let's wait and see!
