How much Sam Allardyce nearly signed Samuel Eto’o for at Bolton Wanderers | OneFootball

24 years ago, the Cameroonian superstar was wanted at the Reebok Stadium...

Back in 2001, Bolton Wanderers had just been promoted back to the Premier League after a three-year absence, losing in a play-off final two years prior to dispatching Preston North End 3-0 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The Trotters were on a high under manager Sam Allardyce, and they backed it up with a 5-0 drubbing of Leicester City in their first match back in the top flight, in a season where they evaded the drop by four points - they would then become Premier League stalwarts for the next 10 years.

2001-02 was the season where footballing luminaries would start to join Wanderers, with Youri Djorkaeff the first big name to arrive in February 2002, and he was then followed later that year by Jay-Jay Okocha, Ivan Campo, and also Fernando Hierro would also join in 2004.

All players with plenty of experience at the latter stages of there career, Bolton wouldn't have as much success in the transfer window signing up and coming players, but it wasn't for the want of trying, as Allardyce audaciously tried to land the services of Samuel Eto'o in the year that they returned to the top flight.

Bolton Wanderers tried to sign Samuel Eto'o from Real Mallorca in 2001

As we know, Cameroonian striker Eto'o became one of the best sharp-shooting strikers in world football for the likes of Inter Milan and Barcelona, but for four years prior to his 2004 move to the Nou Camp, he was leading the line for Real Mallorca.

An initial loan there from Real Madrid was turned permanent after scoring six La Liga goals in 13 appearances at the back end of the 1999-2000 season, and in his first full year with Los Piratas, a babyfaced Eto'o would find the back of the net 11 times in Spain's top tier.

It is believed that after that successful season, Eto'o was wanted by Bolton, and with new-found finances thanks to their Premier League promotion, Allardyce made his pitch to chairman Phil Gartside, with a £6.5 million fee needed to seal the deal with Mallorca.

However, he was unable to convince the man that held the Wanderers purse-strings at the time to pull the deal off, and it's one that is likely regretted to this very day, both due to the fact he ended up being a star on the pitch, and the potential money the club could've made on his future sale.

"He was at Mallorca and I had to try and convince the chairman at the time that €8million (£6.5million) would have been the best €8million he’d ever spent and this player would be worth £20-£25million in the future," Allardyce told Sky's Goals on Sunday in 2012 (as per Metro).

"The thing was, we could have got him to come to England and at that particular time he would have been a bit of a capture."

Samuel Eto'o could have lifted Bolton Wanderers to new heights if Phil Gartside signed off on deal

Bolton didn't exactly splash the cash in their first season back in the Premier League in 2001, with the likes of Henrik Pedersen, Bruno Ngotty and Stig Tofting coming in for fees.

Eto'o though could've been the marquee signing if Gartside had decided to pull the trigger, but he wasn't so forthcoming with the money - and it's something Bolton may always regret.

As it happened, Eto'o would go on to have a quiet 2001-02 season in La Liga for Mallorca, only hitting the back of the net six times, but his 31 goals over the course of the following two seasons would see Barcelona make their move, and it was at the Catalan giants where he would score for fun, win three La Liga titles, two UEFA Champions League's and a third-placed finish in the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2005.