Samuel Eto’o, the legend of African football, says he wants to take advantage of his business management studies at Harvard Business School in the United States to serve his continent.
The four-time African Player of the Year announced his retirement from football at the age of 38 in September. “I want to help and make a positive contribution to the transformation of our continent,” said Eto’o at the French news site Jeune Afrique.
Samuel Eto’o confirmed his decision to study after football: “In January, I will start studying business management at Harvard University after they kindly accepted me for specialized training,” he said. “When you’re a footballer, you pay people to look after your career and things in general, but when it’s up to you to manage people and want to develop them, you almost need to learn new things and skills,” added Samuel Eto’o.
The former striker of Cameroon and FC Barcelona remains the top scorer of his country with 56 goals in 118 games. “I’m going to live in Boston for almost a year for that, it will not be easy, but it’s a nice challenge and you know I always like to challenge myself.”
Eto’o had a professional career rich in trophies in Spain and Italy, but he had much of his club success in Barcelona, where he played from 2004 to 2009. Among the trophies he won with the Catalan club, there are three titles of champion of Spain and two titles of champion of Europe.
He also won the UEFA Champions League under Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan in 2010 and won an Olympic gold medal with Cameroon in 2000. Eto’o, who also played in Russia, Turkey, and Qatar, is the top scorer in the history of the African Cup of Nations with 18 goals.
He competed in four World Cup finals with the Indomitable Lions – 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014 – playing eight games and scoring three goals. The striker also won two consecutive African Cup of Nations titles with his country at the 2000 and 2002 editions.
