Legendary Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o has insisted there is no debate over who the greatest African player of all time is, following claims made by Senegal legend El Hadji Diouf.
Eto’o won the CAF African Player of the Year award on a joint-record four occasions throughout his career, while Didier Drogba and Diouf both won two.
And Eto’o does not mince words about where he ranks against the pair, and in African football history.
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“Even if my brother Diouf the last time, with an extra glass, got a little lost, there is no debate”, said Eto’o, who referenced a video where Diouf appeared to be drunk.
“None of them [Diouf and Drogba] can come and say that they were at my level or better. And it’s not the fact that I say it, it’s a fact, it’s something that is there. I wanted to be number one and I have been throughout my career.”
Diouf won the African Player award in 2001 and 2002 and was pivotal to Senegal’s run in the 2002 World Cup, which helped earn him a transfer to Liverpool.
Eto’o won the award in 2003, 2004 and 2005 each time beating Drogba in second.
Drogba eventually won the award in 2006 and 2009, before Eto’o claimed the trophy for a fourth and final time in 2010.
Both Drogba and Eto’o secured impressive trophy hauls with their respective clubs during their playing days.
They also each won the Champions League, with Eto’o doing so three times (2006, 2009 and 2010), while Drogba helped Chelsea to their first ever triumph in 2012.
Eto’o also won the African Cup of Nations twice with his country in 2000 and 2002- a feat neither Drogba nor Diouf managed to achieve.
Several other players could also lay claim to being Africa’s greatest player though, with George Weah and Abedi Pele previously dominating the annual award.
Yaya Toure has also won the award four times since Eto’o’s triumphs, while recent years have been fought over between Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
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COMMENTS
No doubt, the greatest is President George Opong Weah, he remains the only African till date that no African footballers are yet to match his honor (World best) But Eto has the highest winning honors
While Weah has earned the highest honor I believe Eto’o was the more consistent player over the span of the career. I pick him over Weah based on that alone.
By the way, i noticed we now have an edit button. Way to go CSN staff! Thanks for listening
The guy didn’t say Okocha is the greatest, neither did he say he (Okocha) is the best. He said Okocha is the most talented. The most talented is not necessarily the best. Read through the lines properly.
CS should work on notification next time, it will help one to know when he got a reply.
Thank you guys for the edit button.
This is the way I see it.
1. Eto
2. Kanu
3. Drogba
4. Weah
But okocha is the most talented ever.
George Opong Weah is the KING any day any time, He is the only African /Blackman to have ever won the African Footballer of the year, European Footballer of the year and capped them with the World Footballer Of The Year all in one year. No number of Afcon titles nor champions league titles can beat that.
David Onuchi
A lot of factors go into winning the titles at club level. The team you play for. The calibre of players you play with. All that helped eto. He was a very good player no doubt but Barcelona did a lot to help him. Out of his four awards, okocha was robbed. The reason why BBC gave the award to okocha. Even one of his afcon title was a fraud in Lagos against Nigeria.
Well we can’t rule out titles anyway.
So eto, kanu, weah, drogba. But okocha is the best 10 and the most talented footballer Africa has ever seen. He was just unlucky binnclub football.
Bro, Etoo was swapped with Ibrahimovic and went to an underachieving Inter Milan with no recognized star player. Infact Barca paid some extra 10-15m Euros for Zlatan who was Inter’s best player then. What happened afterwards sir??
A 10 man Inter Milan complete with Etoo knocked out Barca complete with Zlatan at the Camp Nou enroute winning a treble of UCL, Scudetto and Copa Italia! And to add gloss to a fantastic season, Etoo plundered 21 league goals; a record for an African in Seria A till date!
I laugh when we mention Jay Jay…truth is the biggest clubs view him as merely an entertainer. Reason why non of them bidded for him for all his soccer artistry. Truth is bitter. Same PSG he played for at the peak of his powers was where Barca snapped Ronaldinho for an almost world record transfer fee. An average Brazilian freestyler does what Jay Jay does. Unfortunately, when Okocha became more tactical and business like at Bolton Wanderers (culminating in more goals and assist involvement for both club and country. His most productive spells for Eagles where when he played for Bolton), age wasn’t longer on his side denying him the chance to probably strut his stuff for one of the truly BIG CLUBS!
George weah
Eto
KANU
Rigobert song
Yaya toure
Drogba
Diouf
This is the True list of the greatest African footballers of all times that has impressed the world,
1: DiDier Drogba
2: Samuel Etoo
3: Jzy Jay okocha
4: weah
5: toure
6: Diouf
NB : please pay extra respect to DiDier Drogba