Eto’o claims he and Anelka were better than Thierry Henry | OneFootball

Samuel Eto’o is once again raising eyebrows with his comments about his former teammates, this time putting down Thierry Henry.

Speaking in a new documentary (via GFFN), Samuel Eto’o was asked to give his opinion on Thierry Henry.

“I don’t think he was at [Nicolas] Anelka’s level,” Eto’o responded. “Thierry Henry was good but I preferred other players. In any case, [he wasn’t] at my level, no.”

Eto’o did at least compare Henry favourably to El Hadji Diouf, suggesting the two weren’t even on the same level.

“I’m not talking about [El Hadji] Diouf because he’s not even in the same category,” Eto’o added. “How can you put Diouf next to Thierry Henry?”

This isn’t the first time Eto’o has come out with questionable statements about his legendary teammates. Just last year, the striker responded to a comment referring to when he played with Lionel Messi by insisting that wasn’t the case.

“No. He played with me – it is different,” Eto’o said then. “Messi played with me. I did not play with Messi. In my time, Messi played with me. It is totally different. It is totally different.”

To begin with, the comparison between Henry and Anelka is ridiculous. Anelka was certainly a talent, but he never even scored 20 league goals in a season, for any club, in any league, in his entire career.

By contrast, Henry scored 20 league goals five seasons in a row for Arsenal.

As for the other comparisons, I’d personally have both Henry and Messi ahead of Eto’o, though perhaps there is some logic to the striker’s comments there.

Eto’o was Barcelona’s star goalscorer during the period while all three were playing for the La Liga club. Messi was still a young player yet to hit his peak, and Henry was leaving his. You can see why he might get the impression he was a level above them.

Even so, you’d expect Eto’o to be able to look at their careers a little more holistically and show a bit more respect to two legends of the game.