{"id":52604,"date":"2021-10-31T16:54:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T15:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year"},"modified":"2021-10-31T17:16:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T16:16:15","slug":"ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year","title":{"rendered":"Ballon d\u2019 Or: Samuel Eto\u2019o names player that should win award this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Barcelona and Chelsea forward, Samuel Eto\u2019o has backed Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Lionel Messi to win the 2021 Ballon d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n

Messi is among the 30-man nominees for this year\u2019s Ballon d\u2019 Or.<\/p>\n

The Argentine captain will battle Chelsea\u2019s Jorginho, Bayern Munich\u2019s Robert Lewandowski, Real Madrid\u2019s Karim Benzema, Manchester United\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo and among others for the 2021 Ballon d\u2019 Or.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019d] always [give the Ballon d\u2019 Or to Lionel] Messi, who\u2019s like a little brother to me,\u201d Eto\u2019o told Marca.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate him very much as a person and as a player. I watched him grow up and I\u2019ve a special love for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me he is still the best in the world. If we remove Leo, there are others that I like, like Benzema,\u201d Eto\u2019o added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a player that I love. Cristiano left [Real Madrid] and [Benzema] carried the team on his shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Former Barcelona and Chelsea forward, Samuel Eto\u2019o has backed Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Lionel Messi to win the 2021 Ballon d\u2019Or. Messi is among the 30-man nominees for this year\u2019s Ballon d\u2019 Or. The Argentine captain will battle Chelsea\u2019s Jorginho, Bayern Munich\u2019s Robert Lewandowski, Real Madrid\u2019s Karim Benzema, Manchester United\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo and among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":52603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,4939,254,5804],"class_list":["post-52604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-ballon-d-or","tag-nigeria","tag-samuel-etoo"],"yoast_head":"\nBallon d\u2019 Or: Samuel Eto\u2019o names player that should win award this year - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Barcelona and Chelsea forward, Samuel Eto\u2019o has backed Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Lionel Messi to win the 2021 Ballon ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ballon d\u2019 Or: Samuel Eto\u2019o names player that should win award this year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Barcelona and Chelsea forward, Samuel Eto\u2019o has backed Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Lionel Messi to win the 2021 Ballon ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-31T15:54:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-31T16:16:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/10\/img-617ec1367aa16.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ballon d\u2019 Or: Samuel Eto\u2019o names player that should win award this year\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-31T15:54:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-31T16:16:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year\"},\"wordCount\":183,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/10\/img-617ec1367aa16.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Ballon d\u2019 Or\",\"Nigeria\",\"Samuel Eto\u2019o\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/ballon-d-or-samuel-etoo-names-player-that-should-win-award-this-year\",\"name\":\"Ballon d\u2019 Or: Samuel Eto\u2019o names player that should win award this year - 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