Samuel Eto’o’s new woes with the Cameroon FA may signify the end of his international football career

Following the Indomitable Lions’ boycott of the November 15 international friendly against Algeria, the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) has summoned team captain Samuel Eto’o and his deputy, Eyong Enoh to appear before the body’s disciplinary committee in December for allegedly instigating the strike action that is likely to cost the federation a stupefying $1 million  in damages.

In addition to the strike, the Anzhi Makhachkala striker is also being accused of attempting to destabilize the Fecafoot and the sports ministry (Minsep), and may not receive the kind of clemency and easy acquittal he pulled off in June when he faced the same committee after he was arraigned for opposing a player’s substitution during a match.

Eto’o is yet to air his own version of what transpired after the Lions won the LG Cup in Morocco, and explain why they spurned their entitled bonuses which were later channeled down, although later than promised.

Samuel Eto'o | Serving with goals and generosity

He is most likely going to defend himself and his teammates and seems poised not to apologies for any wrongdoing this time, as opposed to other occasions when he showed tearful remorse for failing to help Cameroon qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) or for the team’s woeful elimination from the 2010 World Cup.

The three-time European champion and four-time African Player of the Year seems to be fed up with the endless tiffs and tongue-lashings back home about himself and his international career, according to local editorials.

The face-to-face meeting on December 12 with the Fecafoot judges could be determinant of his waning future with the Indomitable Lions. Will he announce an outright retirement if it slaps him with a severe sanction? Will he cower out of the conclave with head bowed in penitence and issue an apology for the umpteenth time?

It is still difficult to guess the outcome of the hearing and its aftermath, but it is very easy to deduce from Eto’o and his players' assumed actions that the national team, the FA and the sport ministry are not on the same page and are instead in complete disarray, which stemmed from causes that are bigger and older than the lifespan of Eto’o's captaincy.

Now that the office of the head of state has poked its nose into the match bonus row and demanded an explanation from the sport officials, it suggests Eto’o and Co. have perhaps succeeded in laying down the cancerous woes of the team at the feet of the country’s highest authorities.

No matter how the hearing proceeds, there will be the consciousness of people observing from higher quarters. Eto’o may offload his burdens as team captain to the state and fans, and then heave a sigh of relief in the knowledge that he can focus on the future with a lighter heart.

With more than 54 goals scored and two Afcon titles captured with the Cameroon national team, the 30-year-old Eto’o, who remains the world’s highest paid footballer, may no longer have anything to prove to local fans. Steering his focus to charity, as he has actively began doing in the central African region, may be his next big ambition.