Moscow Hair
October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Monkey Business
October 18, 2010 By 2 Comments
By Peter Alegi, Guest Blogger
On Sunday, October 17, 2010, history was made in the Italian serie A: a match was stopped due to fans’ racist chants. It happened at the Sant’Elia stadium in Cagliari (on the island of Sardinia). Just two minutes in, referee Paolo Tagliavento had enough of the monkey chants from the Cagliari ultras directed at Inter striker Samuel Eto’o.
Tagliavento blew his whistle, explained his decision to the two captains, then ordered the fourth official to have this announcement made over the stadium’s public address system: ‘If racist chants persist, the match will be suspended.’ It was repeated twice.
After the announcement no monkey chants poisoned the atmosphere. In a delicious twist to this sad affair, Eto’o went on to score the only goal of the match and celebrated by ‘monkeying’ around.
* Reblogged from Football is Coming Home.
Represent
May 3, 2010 By 3 Comments
If the choice of which team to root for in May 22nd’s European Champions League final was based on how many African players they fielded, then apparently you should root for Inter Milan.
Milan has three players on its roster:Samuel Eto’o, Sulley Muntari and McDonald Mariga. That’s of course if Muntari and Mariga get to play.
In contrast, Bayern Munich has zero African players in its team, argues Piers Edwards in his football blog on the BBC’s site. Oh, and Milan manager, Jose Mourinho, has a history of trusting African players (even if he inherited them from a previous manager) in key positions–think Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi. And Mourinho wife was born in Angola. That’s not how I pick a team to root for, but thanks for telling me.
The Full-Back
April 20, 2010 By 1 Comment
I am still on my pre-World Cup binge.
Brazil remains odds on favorites to win Africa’s first World Cup two months from now. BTW, it’s old news now but Brazil can also count on local support in South Africa: they’re South African fans’ favorite other team. Brazil play two group matches in Johannesburg–against North Korea on June 15 and Ivory Coast on June 20. Their final group game, against Portugal, will be in Durban in a stadium named after a great Communist leader of the struggle, Moses Mabhida. Anyway, this man, Maicon–here scoring a great goal against Juventus for his club Inter Milan in Italy’s Serie A last weekend–will be central to Brazilian plans. And he plays like a midfielder.
The Special One
March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Cameroon’s football captain Samuel Eto’o scores for his club Internazionale Milano against Livorno in Italy’s Serie A.
THE INDOMINABLE LION
December 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
CNN just published a list of the eleven players who dominated and defined football in the 2000s. Samuel Eto’o of Inter Milan and Cameroon and probably the best footballer out of Africa, is the only continental player that made the list. That’s deserved. Eto’o, by the way, is also the official face of next June’s World Cup in South Africa.
