Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o revealed the story of his departure
from Barcelona, in order to join the ranks of Inter Milan, under
the leadership of Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho.
In an interview reported by the Spanish newspaper “Marca”,
Eto’o said that Mourinho was able to simply convince him to
move to the city of Milan, explaining: “Very simply,
(Mourinho) sent me a photo with Inter Milan shirt number 9,
and he said: This number is for you and is waiting for you.”
He continued, “Then Marco Materazzi (the team’s defender at
the time) sent me a phone message saying: If you come to Inter
Milan, we will win everything.”
He continued: “I did not have his number registered, and I
asked: Is this the number of Materazzi? It was already his
number, it has not happened to me like this before, this message
got a lot of weight in my choice.
Ito moved from Barcelona to Inter Milan in the summer of 2009,
and succeeded in winning the Champions League title for two
consecutive seasons, once with the Catalan team and the other
with the “Neratsuri”.
Regarding facing his former team Barcelona in the Champions
League semester 2009-2010 season, he said: “When Thiago
Motta (his teammate at Inter) was dismissed, Mourinho and
Javier Zanetti called me to explain how to play, and I had no
time to think how much I should be running in an area Behind
the wing. ”
And he added, “I told myself I have to do everything and we
will be in the final, and in the end we have already reached
the final.”
Eto’o also spoke about his speech to encourage his teammates
before the decisive final against Bayern Munich, and explained:
“I simply said: We are not here to play a final but to win it,
either we die on the field or we return the cup to Milan, but we
returned to Milan with the cup “.
