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Samuel Eto’o, although he seems to have been playing at the top level for such a long time, was, in fact, born in March 1981 in Nkon, Cameroon. Seemingly followed by controversy, Eto’o signed for Real Madrid as a 16 year old and had, to put it mildly, a strange relationship with the club from then on.

Firstly, upon his arrival at Madrid airport, young Samuel was famously forgotten about – a young black African with no Spanish hanging around an airport; an inauspicious beginning. After uneventful loan spells at Leganés and Espanyol, the coltish-looking Eto’o found himself loaned out to Mallorca, where he really began to show off his credentials.

Scoring 54 goals, Eto’o became the islanders’ highest league goal scorer and developed a real affinity with the supporters there – and he famously scored a spectacular individual goal against Madrid in the Bernabeu! Eto’o enjoyed his relationship with Mallorca so much that, when they reached the Copa del Rey final in 2003, he paid out EUR30,000 on a meal for them!

At the end of his loan spell, the Real Madrid supporters were almost unanimous in their desire for Samuel to return to the capital and compete for the forward positions with Raul and Ronaldo. What followed was a summer of continuous speculation and argument and eventually, for EUR24 million, the player signed for Barcelona – something that still annoys many Real Madrid fans.

Since then, Eto’o has scored goals galore for the Catalan giants. In his first, championship-winning season, Eto’o scored 25 league goals, including the title-clinching strike at Levante. He reached 50 goals in just 67 matches – a club record.

In addition to wining African Footballer of the year a record three times in succession from 2003, Samuel was part of the Cameroon side that won the African Cup in 2000 and 2002 and was runner-up in 2008. Previously, he had been the youngest player, at 17 years and 3 months, in the 1998 World Cup. He was the pichichi, top goal scorer, in La Liga in 2005/06, when, of course, he scored an equalising goal in the Champions’ League final against Arsenal.

Controversy has never been far away, however. After winning the league in 2005, Eto’o made the mistake of singing an abusive song about Madrid during the on-pitch celebrations. He has also been famously outspoken in his denouncements of racial abuse chanted in grounds – even threatening to walk off during one league game at Zaragova. Furthermore, there were times during 2007/08 season when Samuel Eto’o seemed a very forlorn figure, when his relationship with some of the other players was not at its best. At the end of the season, it seemed that the club were determined to transfer Ronaldinho, Deco and Eto’o, the perceived bad influences at the club. Eto’o, though, with typical determination, was adamant that his future was still with Barcelona – and he has proved to be absolutely correct.

Samuel Eto’o is fast, two-footed, brave and a totally committed team player and arguably the best centre forward in modern football.

FC Barcelona has Europe’s biggest football/soccer stadiums. Built in the 1950s, Camp Nou, or the New Camp has earned the fans of Barcelona the nickname of «Les Cules» – literally meaning «the arses» as the opposing supporters could see the back of the bums on seats of the loyal Barça fans from outside the stadium. Match day is a fantastic day out, especially against bitter rivals Real Madrid, or local derby matches against RCD Espanyol – indeed such is the draw of the venue, that the last world tour of U2 was performed here, due to the enormous capacity – around 99,000 people, with plans already approved to increase the capacity to 106,000. So how do I get to see a match, I hear you cry?! Well relax; there are some foolproof techniques you can employ before resorting to those ticket websites.

First of all, you can try the official website. Tickets go on sale approximately 2 weeks before match day, and you can be lucky and find seats this way. Alternatively, if you’re already in town, you can make your way down to the ticket office at the stadium – with such a high capacity, it’s rare for games to sell out – unless we’re talking about the previous fixtures of Real Madrid or a semi final in the Champions League, of course! However, this information is readily available on the website or any affiliate program of Barcelona. What I’m going to reveal are the tricks.

Season ticket holders to FC Barcelona can only ever give their ticket back to the club, or maintain that ticket with the surname. So many older generation season ticket holders, simply hold on to their relatives’ season tickets and sell on these seats on match day. Let me explain. Say my father and his 4 brothers were all season ticket holders, but of those 5 siblings, only 1 had children (me). I would renew those season tickets each year, due to their privileged location within the stands, and simply turn up 30 minutes before kick off each home game and sell on those tickets for face price, with the guarantee of having better view than the box office tickets and probably paying off my own season tickets from the profits by the end of the season. This is perfectly legal within the eyes of the club and the governing bodies of football, as long as money doesn’t change hands. So those clever OAP’s you see hanging around the metro station are the ones with the best tickets! The security guards at the turnstiles know the score, but as long as they haven’t seen money changing hands, then its fine by them. This is the best way to get tickets for the match, as you are effectively escorted in by the seller (you will sit next to them), so no security risks with regards fake tickets. It does however, have its risks in that if anyone sees you pay for the ticket, then you run the risk of losing your money and the ticket.

Tickets for matches are released to the general public after the FC Barcelona Members can buy them. You pay an annual subscription to the club if you can’t get a season ticket (based on my previous paragraph, you won’t be surprised to hear that the waiting list for a season ticket extends back to the 1970`s) and then have first refusal for the tickets before the public. In this way, many «touts» will buy up their share of the ticket allocation, often meaning they take all of the second tier seats in the stadium or the second best seats, after the season ticket holders. They then have a mark up of around 5 Euros per ticket, which for the majority of tourists is a steal, considering the better seat you will be able to get for this first time experience.

My final tip is again, not one that is well publicised and although this means that you don’t have the choice of the better seat allocation, it’s an official way of going about getting a ticket. You may be surprised to hear that ATMs or cash machines of the bank «La Caixa» also sell FC Barcelona tickets. The Catalan bank sells concert tickets, opera entrances and theatre stalls, so it’s no surprise to be able to find seats for the football, either. The reason why I left this tip for last is that due to the previous methods, the Cash point tickets are usually always the last to be sold, meaning you will have the cheapest seats (therefore be higher up in the stadium) which is not to put you off, as any seat in the stadium is well worth the price, but just so that you know you have various options. This option, for example, is great for larger groups who all want to stay together, as it means tickets can be bought in bulk – this way guaranteeing adjacent seating arrangements.

My last tip is to wrap up warm if you happen to go to a winter fixture! Although the winters in Barcelona are fairly mild, the height of the stadium coupled with its geographic location means that often the wind chill factor is very high within the stadium.

With the draw for the Spanish League now published we now know the full details of FC Barcelona’s fixtures for the 2007-2008, listed below:

26 Aug Racing v Barcelona

2 Sep Barcelona v Athletic

16 Sep Osasuna v Barcelona

23 Sep Barcelona v Sevilla

26 Sep Barcelona v Zaragoza

30 Sep Levante v Barcelona

7 Oct Barcelona v At. Madrid

21 Oct Villarreal v Barcelona

28 Oct Barcelona v Almeria

31 Oct Real Valladolid v Barcelona

4 Nov Barcelona v Betis

11 Nov Getafe v Barcelona

25 Nov Barcelona v Recreativo

2 Dec Espanyol v Barcelona

9 Dec Barcelona v Deportivo

16 Dec Valencia v Barcelona

23 Dec Barcelona v Real Madrid

6 Jan Mallorca v Barcelona

13 Jan Barcelona v Murcia

20 Jan Barcelona v Racing

27 Jan Athletic v Barcelona

3 Feb Barcelona v Osasuna

10 Feb Sevilla v Barcelona

17 Feb Zaragoza v Barcelona

24 Feb Barcelona v Levante

2 Mar At. Madrid v Barcelona

9 Mar Barcelona v Villarreal

16 Mar Almeria v Barcelona

23 Mar Barcelona v Real Valladolid

30 Mar Betis v Barcelona

6 Apr Barcelona v Getafe

13 Apr Recreativo v Barcelona

20 Apr Barcelona v Espanyol

27 Apr Deportivo v Barcelona

4 May Barcelona v Valencia

7 May Real Madrid v Barcelona

11 May Barcelona v Mallorca

18 May Murcia v Barcelona

While the season gets off to a fairly easy start, the clash against Real Madrid at the Nou Camp will take place on December 23rd this year, a great time for anyone who want to make the most of a football and last minute shopping weekend, while Barcelona visit Spain’s capital city on May 7th 2007.

We’re still awaiting details of the Champions League draw, which will kick off in September. After losing the League title to Madrid at the last minute and being knocked out of the European title Barcelona’s supporters eagerly await the start of the season to see what difference the new signings, like Thierry Henry, make to FC Barcelona’s fortunes.

Week 26 of the Spanish League took place on the weekend of 3rd and 4th march 2006, with Real Madrid going into the weekend a full ten points clear of FC Barcelona, the previous year’s title holders and bitterest rival. Madrid was to face the second team of the city of Barcelona, Espanyol, at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, while FC Barcelona was to play host to Sporting Gijon, sitting down in the relegation zone.

While on paper at least, Sporting looked to be a walk over, football matches don’t always follow mathematical logic in that respect and so Barcelona were fully prepared for whatever their visitors could throw at them.

However, Pep Guardiola was forced to field an under strength team, with Leo Messi sitting the match out due to his first ever suspension owing to five yellow cards picked up in previous matches, and Alexis started out on the bench; the Catalans were certainly looking a little short up front.

Much of the first half looked like a stalemate, with neither team able to score despite some effort to do so from both teams. However, four minutes from the half time break a nice bit of team play from Keita and Adriano set up Iniesta for the first goal of the match from 6 yards; minutes later Cesc almost made it two.

After the break Sporting’s de las Cuevas got in past the Barcelona defence and Pique challenged him; de las Cuevas went down and out came a red card for the Catalan defender. Replays showed that the decision was harsh and Pique was quick to criticise after the match.

With Barcelona thrown off balance Sporting managed to score. Once they did get back on their feet with 10 players though Iniesta and Xavi were looking like real stars. However, it was Keita who put Barcelona back in the lead 20 minutes before the end; and Xavi finished it off for the home team when he scored a few minutes from the end.

With three points in the bag, attention was then focused on Real Madrid to see what would happen with Espanyol, who went into the weekend in eighth place in la liga. Unfortunately for Barcelona, Madrid also took all three points available to them too, with a comfortable 5-0 win against Espanyol. While it is mathematically possible still for Barcelona to win the league, the likelihood of it happening at this stage, with Real Madrid still so strong, it close to zero. However, it looks like they won’t stop playing their best and still have the Champions League to play for.

With the fixture list for the Spanish league now published we are now in a position to start planning which matches to go and see. One of the top two clubs in Spain is normally considered to be FC Barcelona, and here we discuss the highlights of the fixture list for the year.

The top matches are undoubtedly the games between Barcelona and Real Madrid due to the huge rivalry between the two cities and the rejection of a centralised Spain by many Catalans. The two clubs are life long archrivals and the matches eagerly awaited. The first round clash takes place in Barcelona on December 13th or 14th, with the return match at the Santiago Bernadeu stadium in Madrid taking place on May 2nd/3rd.

One of the other great clashes is against Barcelona’s second team, RCD Espanyol. This season the first leg is played at the Estadi Olimpic on the last weekend of September, with Espanyol crossing town for the Nou Camp on February 21st/22nd. While Espanyol aren’t at the same level as Barcelona, they do have a hardcore fan base and the results are not a forgone conclusion by any means.

Other top matches include Barcelona versus Getafe, a hard fighting team from Madrid. Although they only gained promotion to the top division several years ago, they quickly established a reputation as a worthy rival under the management of Bernd Schuster who is now at Real Madrid. They visit the Nou Camp on November 22nd/23rd, with Barça making the return match on April 18th/19th and other matches of note include Valencia and Sevilla, both worthy opponents.