Samuel Eto’o has promised to buy a house for fellow Cameroonian Norbert Owona, a former national team captain who has been living homeless.
Eto’o also donated 500,000 CFA francs (£686) to 67-year-old Owona after discovering he has been living rough in Douala, a coastal city in Cameroon.
Owona’s plight was revealed in a recent documentary, and Eto’o reportedly went to visit him in hospital after Owona was diagnosed with an inguinal hernia.
Owona played for Cameroon in the 1960s and 1970s and had complained of “living like an animal,” per BBC Sport.
Eto’o, 37, also captained Cameroon before retiring from international football in 2014.
The three-time UEFA Champions League winner recently signed for Qatar Sports Club after spending three seasons in Turkey with Antalyaspor and Konyaspor.
“Eto’o is a very kind man, very kind,” Owona told BBC Sport. “I have been homeless with no food to eat.”
The visit took place on Sunday 19 August at a hospital in the city of Douala, where Owona had been admitted after the documentary aired on Cameroon’s Equinoxe Television earlier in the month.
It showed footage of the former Union of Douala player sleeping rough and explaining that he had spent all his savings on medical treatment to pay for the cancer care of his wife and children.
After his wife and two children died, he was destitute and had been unable to find help – despite letters to government ministers asking for financial and medical assistance.
But after the television programme, African Synergy, a charity set up by Cameroon’s First Lady Chantal Biya, stepped in to organise his admittance to hospital.
