10 greatest Barcelona players of the 21st century 

Messi waves to the Camp Nou crowd
Messi waves to the Camp Nou crowd

#8 Samuel Eto'o

Samuel Eto's poses with the treble in 2009
Samuel Eto's poses with the treble in 2009

Having failed to make the grade at Real Madrid, Samuel Eto'o went on to achieve prominence at Real Mallorca, where he helped the club to the 2003 Copa del Rey trophy and became the club's leading domestic league scorer.

His performance with Mallorca caught the attention of Barcelona and a transfer was agreed for the sum of €24m in the summer of 2004.

In his first season at Camp Nou, the former Cameroonian international scored 25 goals from 37 matches to help Barcelona to her first LaLiga title in six years and also played a starring role as the club retained the title a season later in addition to their second Champions League.

Eto'o narrowly lost out to Diego Forlan by a goal in the race for the Spanish Golden Boot in his first season but he was not to be denied in his second campaign, as his 26 goals were enough to see him win the Pichichi award.

After initial success, the next two seasons were spent in the shadows of Real Madrid but the arrival of Guardiola helped Barcelona climb back to the top and Eto'o functioned as the spearhead of the attack, scoring 36 goals in all competitions to help the Catalans to their first treble.

He departed Camp Nou in the summer of 2009, ending his Barcelona spell with 130 goals from 199 matches and he came back to haunt his former side with Inter Milan just a season later but despite helping to eliminate the Blaugrana from the Champions League, it takes nothing away from his legendary contribution to the club.

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