Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o has hit back at claims made by coach, Frank Rijkaard, that he refused to play for the club at weekend.
"It was a bad thing to come out and say in a press conference that I did not want to play," said Eto'o.
Eto'o bursted out when Rijkaard accused him of refusing to come in as a substitute for the last 5 minutes of their game against Racing Santander on Sunday (Barcelona won 2-0).
"Eto'o warmed up but afterwards told Eusebio (Barcelona assistant coach) that he did not want to come on," Rijkaard said.
But Eto'o had a different version of the story. He said that he refused to play because he did not have time to warm up properly.
Eto'o who was out of action for four months due to his injured right knee also lashed out at teammate Ronaldinho for saying he should be more of a team player.
"If a team-mate says that you must think of the team, it´s up to him to think of the team. Personally I always think first about the group and then money. That is what hurt me most," he said.
Eto'o has also claimed that there are serious problems between two groups of players at the reigning European champions.
"There are two groups at Barcelona, one of the president and the other linked to another person.", he said. (I wonder who is this another person).
But even after such outburst against the coach and teammate, Barcelona has decided not to punish Eto'o and claim that the issue has been resolved. (Ah ! all is well that ends well).
And about the feud between him and teammate Ronaldinho, according to a report by BBC Sport "During a training session there appeared to be no hard feelings between Eto'o and Ronaldinho as the two players were photographed hugging."
Now that's what I call Happy Ending !! :)
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