Samuel Eto'o opens up on his relationship with former boss. "Pep Guardiola is a coward, he never had the courage to say things in front of me."

Chelsea striker and former Barcelona player, Samuel Eto’o has opened up on his relationship with his former boss, Pep Guardiola while at the spanish club. The Cameroonian revealed that during the 2008/2009 season, the incumbent Bayern Munich coach spoke to him on few occasions and used other players to communicate more.

“I first of all reminded Guardiola that he’d never been a great player. He was a good player, that’s true. I told him. As a coach, he had proven nothing. He came in and didn’t even know the story of the dressing room. Guardiola has never had the courage to say things in front of me. He passed by the players. Xavi told me they wanted me to stay but I had to talk to Pep. I say “never, if you do not respect me, I do not respect you. There were three occasions when he spoke to me that season.

One was when he wanted me to speak to Yaya Toure, who didn’t want to talk to him either. Another was when he told me how to move like a striker. I told him: “You’re not normal!” The true story is that Pep didn’t respect the things in football.

He shook hands with me when I was at Inter and I played against Barca, but this was just for the cameras and TV. Behind the scenes before the match, he did not greet me.’

PHOTOS: SEE THE BARCELONA STARS WHO TURNED OUT FOR XAVI'S WEDDING

Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Barcelona and non-Barcelona stars as well as thousands of fans and well-wishers stormed the Convent de Blanes in the Catalan capital, venue of Xavi Hernandez and his wife Nuria’s wedding ceremony on saturday July 13, 2013.

The roll-call of football celebrities most of which are La-Liga stars at the event include Messi, Víctor Valdes, Cesc Fabregas, Javier Mascherano, Pedro Rodriguez, Jordi Alba, Andres Iniesta, Santi Ezquerro, Oleguer Presas, Gabri García, Pepe Reina, Albert Jorquera, Joseba Etxeberría and many more.

Absent at the star-studded event include some of his close friends, Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol and Iker Casillas.

Photocredit: @barcastuff

BALLON D'OR: LIONEL MESSI CLAIMS FOURTH PLACE IN HISTORY

The 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or awards held at Zurich, Switzerland saw humble and talented Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi win the FIFA Ballon d'Or for the third consecutive time, polling 47.88 of the votes, ahead of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (21.6)%) and Barcelona's Xavi (9.23%). 
24 year-old Leo as fondly called is the fourth person in history to win 3 Ballon d'Or trophies after Cruyff, Platini and Van Basten.
These awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men's (for the two men's football awards) and women's (for the two women's football awards) national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by French football magazine France Football, voted for candidates in each of the four categories. Each group's votes represented one third of the final result. 
Speaking on the honour, the Argentine said, "It's a huge honour. I want to share this award with the people that voted for me and with my teammates. I'm very proud to have won the trophy three times, especially one after the other. It's hard to win one, let alone three."

List of winners
1) FIFA Ballon d'Or-Lionel Messi
2) Presidential award-Sir Alex Ferguson
3) FIFA Coach of the year award (Men's football)- Pep Guardiola
4) FIFA's Coach of the year award (Women's football)-Norio Sasaki
5) Best Goal of 2011-Neymar
6) Best Female player of 2011-Homare Sawa
7) Fairplay award-Japanese Football Association

CANDIDATES FOR THE 2011 FIFA BALLON D'OR&WORLD COACH OF THE YEAR AWARDS

The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has revealed the list of shortlisted candidates for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or award and for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football award.
The list was drawn up by football experts from the Football Committee, the Technical and Development Committee and by a group of experts from France Football.
The following 23 men are contending for the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2011Éric Abidal (France)
Sergio Agüero (Argentina),
Karim Benzema (France),
Iker Casillas (Spain),
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal),
Dani Alves (Brazil),
Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon),
Cesc Fàbregas (Spain),
Diego Forlán (Uruguay),
Andrés Iniesta (Spain),
Lionel Messi (Argentina),
Thomas Müller (Germany),
Nani (Portugal),
Neymar (Brazil),
Mesut Özil (Germany),
Gerard Piqué (Spain),
Wayne Rooney (England),
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany),
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands),
Luis Suárez (Uruguay),
David Villa (Spain),
Xabi Alonso (Spain),
Xavi (Spain). The following ten coaches are contending for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football 2011: Vicente Del Bosque (Spain/Spain national team),
Alex Ferguson (Scotland/Manchester United FC),
Rudi Garcia (France/Lille OSC),
Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Barcelona),
Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Borussia Dortmund), Joachim Löw (Germany/Germany national team),
José Mourinho (Portugal/Real Madrid C.F.), Óscar Tabárez (Uruguay/Uruguay national team),
André Villas-Boas (Portugal/FC Porto, Chelsea FC),
Arsène Wenger (France/Arsenal FC)FIFA and France Football will on 5th December, 2011 hold a press conference in Paris, however, names of the three men and three women, as well as the three men's coaches and three women's coaches, with the highest number of votes will be revealed. The three nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award will also be announced. The winners of all of the awards will be revealed at the second FIFA Ballon d'Or gala as part of a televised ceremony at the Zurich Kongresshaus on 9 January 2012.
The FIFA/FIFPro World XI and the FIFA Puskás Award for the most beautiful goal of the year, the FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be presented during the gala.

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