Samuel Eto’o accuses teammates of not passing to him

Samuel Eto’o has accused some of his Cameroon teammates of refusing to pass to him during their World Cup playoff against Tunisia.

Ahead of the second leg of the tie on Sunday, the 32-year-old claims that he had known in advance of the attempt to undermine him and had to do more work himself to drop deep and get the ball.

“It’s true and regrettable,” Eto’o told the press, “and when you watched me retreating to the midfield to chase the ball, it’s because I heard of the plot. Football is a collective sport. You are obliged to pass the ball even to your worst enemy, especially when he is in a good position to receive it.

“It is time to put all these issues behind us and concentrate on Sunday’s match. We need to unite, chat during the game and do our best to obtain the result that the entire nation is expecting from us and, since our coach is right here, I want him to help stop the act of not passing the ball to a player on the field.”

If they didn’t pass to Eto’o during the last match, it’s hard to believe they will be laying them on a plate this time round.

However, boss Volker Finke argued immediately against Eto’o’s claims, insisting that he never noticed such a situation during the 0-0 draw.

“I didn’t see anything of such a nature during that match,” the German declared. “Each of you can go and watch the video once more. I have watched it over again for about six to seven times. I never noticed any time when a player refused to pass the ball to Eto’o or any other player.

“There could be some issues between the players but nobody refused to kick the ball to Eto’o during that encounter. To me it sounds much like a kindergarten talk.”

Indeed it does. Although given the number of times Eto’o has retired from the national team, one could understand why some of his teammates might wish to teach him a lesson.