SAMUEL ETO’O has revealed Jose Mourinho asked him to give the pre-match team talk during the 2010 Champions League final.
Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in Madrid to cap off a remarkable season and win the Treble.
And Eto’o claims the ‘Special One’ tapped into his knowledge of winning major honours in his side’s bid to make history.
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The story had become part of folklore in Italian football, and when asked about it, he admitted to Sky Italia’s ‘E Poi C’e Cattelan’: “Yes, it’s true.
“And I thank him because he did something which few managers would have done.
“He did his usual pre-match team talk and then he said: ‘Now Samuel will tell us how to win.’”
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Eto’o joined Inter in the summer 2009, having won the Treble at Barcelona and a Champions League trophy just three years earlier.
And he explained the mentality it takes to take home silverware.
He added: “In a final, normally, it’s not the team that plays the occasion that wins, but the team which plays the match.
“In a final, it’s not important how you play but only that you take the trophy home.
“And each one of us believed we had worked really hard to reach this final.
“We had been to places such as Barcelona and London to play Chelsea — it was over 40 years since we’d last won it.
“And, our fans had only this dream.
“There were so many emotions, and I told the guys: ‘I’ve won many finals, I’ve played many, thank God, but this is the most special,’ — because we could feel we had to do something for a city, for a group of people who deserved it.
“So I told the guys: ‘Either we die on that pitch and come home with the trophy, or we die and don’t return to Milan.’
“But, thank God, it all went well and we returned home to Milan with the trophy.”