By Chinedu Okorodike
Few players in Africa and the world at large are celebrated like Samuel Eto’o Fils and rightfully so. He is a two-time Champions League winner with Barcelona and Inter Milan, a multiple Spanish La Liga winner, he has over 100 goals for Barcelona across five seasons and jointly holds the record as a four time African best footballer of the year amongst other enviable records.
But on a night of bliss, hope and anticipation of giving back to a beautiful city (Antalya in Turkey) for the love and acceptance they had for him, it all turned to unbearable pain and a scar he will never forget.
At the time of writing this piece, it is still unclear if he will call off the game which had all 33,000 tickets sold out and saw the world’s best players both present and past all arrive in Turkey to celebrate a man who was, in its full definition, an excellent footballer.
But one thing is certain. Eto’o’s night of excitement for which he had taken pains to organize and put in not only physical cash but his time, had left a scar on him; one that would leave him wondering if he made the right decision in hosting the game in his beloved Antalya Turkey or done in Yaounde Cameroon, the country he represented and took to the World Cup.
What was the purpose of the game?
I am sure a lot of people reading this piece will be wondering what sort of game it was.
In my short career as a journalist, I have been privileged enough to cover a few charity games but the Samuel Eto’ Charity game simply because of the sheer weight of footballers involved was out of this world. Of course, it was a football game but this had the current world footballer of the year Lionel Messi confirming that he had a ticket to Antalya for the game,
Chelsea super Stars Eden Hazard had already touched down and so did Italian and former England Manager Fabio Capello amongst others.
The aim was to raise funds to continue the work the Samuel Eto’o foundation had been doing in the past decade.
What is the Samuel Eto’o foundation?
The Samuel Eto’o Private Foundation was established in March 2006 as a non-profit organization operating mainly in West Africa.
The foundation strives to raise awareness of the needs of the African continent. Its goal is the protection of children and young people, providing emergency aid and encouraging education, basic health and social inclusion for the disadvantaged in order to help them create opportunities for the future, according to its website.
Why was the game being played in Turkey and not Cameroon?
Why did he choose Turkey and not Cameroon to have this game?
“The Samuel Eto’o foundation is a global foundation now and the primary aim is to make it visible not only on the African continent but make sure we help everybody who is in need by creating the awareness,” he jokingly said
“There are a lot of things that go into games like this which you will not understand.” I guess I will leave the judgment for you to make if his answer was satisfactory.
The GALA: the night before the football match
The event itself was one of the most colourful gatherings in the world with Chelsea star Eden Hazard in attendance, and of course he would be because he credits Eto’o for his career development as he played a part in sending him to play in Lille.
Also present were Eric Abidal, Fabio Capello, Puyol, Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwakwo, Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, David James, Marcel Dessaily and Kolo Toure.
Also in Antalya was President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Mayor of Antalya, Menders Türel and they were all there to celebrate a player that had boosted tourism in Turkey since his arrival at the beginning of 2015.
Almost every television station in Turkey was picking the Gala live and the attention of the nation was at one place- the Regnum Carya hotel in Antalya.
But at that point, some other guys were executing their plans (military coups) because the nation was concentrated in Antalya, the military who for some reason I do not know, decided to cease the opportunity and try to overthrow the government.
News quickly broke like wild fire in the Gala room and you could tell the uneasiness on Eto’o’s face who had succeeded in bringing together a crowd that had never been seen before in Antalya.
His perfect night had been ruined and fear and panic replaced the bright smiles of the face of every top player present.
The Coup attempt was done overnight but I am certain it took hours if not days, weeks or months of planning.
The military knew everything about the Samuel Eto’o game and knew very well that their only chance of catching the government unaware was when Eto’o brought the world to Turkey.
Although Turkey has arrested 6,000 people who had connection to the failed coup, with President Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the "virus" that caused the revolt.
It’s a shame that a night that started with so much excitement had ended in pain but the ultimate losers will be the people of Turkey who will have to wait for another generation to have a foreigner try to sell their country like Mr Eto’o wanted to do.
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