Legendary former Inter striker Samuel Eto’o still fondly thinks of former club president Massimo Moratti and the Italian’s role in mentoring him to success with the Nerazzurri.

Speaking in a DAZN documentary about Moratti, as reported by FCInter1908, the Cameroonian explained that it was Moratti who really made him feel at home at Inter.

Eto’o joined the Nerazzurri from Barcelona in the summer of 2009, and in the very first season he spent with the club he won every trophy available, helping the club to lift the Treble of the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia, and the Champions League.

The former striker believes that it was Moratti who was the guiding inspiration behind that team and that the former President had an impact on many players other than himself.

“He was my President, but I never had the impression that that’s what he was. I always had the impression that he was like a father, he gave me advice and helped me in difficult times. But all his players have experienced this feeling.”

Eto’o was one of the final missing pieces of a team that built upon the Scudetto success of manager Jose Mourinho’s first season to go all the way and win the Champions League and the Copa Italia as well.

“I remember the move to Inter as if it were yesterday,” he reminisced, “I remember receiving a photo with the number 9 shirt from my friend Jose who said to me: ‘This shirt and this number are waiting for you, come and let’s win the Champions League together.'”

“Moratti called me on the phone speaking a French so I found it hard to think it was really him,” Eto’o continued, “he didn’t have an Italian accent, not at all.”

“I came into a big family,” the Cameroonian said of the dynamic of Inter at the time, “headed by the greatest President football has ever known and one of the most wonderful people I’ve known. In Madrid we were all as happy as kids who were about to receive a new bicycle, eleven months before we never thought we would be able to do it, but one of us was convinced we could do it.”

Eto’o continued, “On the occasion of the first leg against Barcelona we arrived at the stadium and Materazzi said to me: ‘Brother, how are you?’ I was listening to music, I did not hear: I only read the lips and I said ‘Let’s win.'”

“Before the final Jose passed along the word and allowed me to say what was on my mind. Then he said, ‘Someone here has a habit of winning it.’ I had been preparing for the game in my mind for days, I was concentrated,” Eto’o related.

“Seeing all those people I said to myself: ‘If I’m at 200% I have to go up to 500%,'” he continued, “We have to go back to Milan with the cup. When I passed the ball to Diego, he had two options, but I just said ‘my God, finish off the game.’ My heart and my strength were all in his foot. I told him, ‘make the right choice for our people.'”

“I have tears when all this come back to me,” Eto’o said, “There was a moment when I greeted the fans while going to take a corner. And behind the door there was a fan crying who said to me: ‘Come on Samu, let’s go.’ And this image touched me when I was on the plane and I imagined how many kilometers he had travelled to be there with all the symbols of Inter.”

He went on, “I said to myself: ‘This is football.’ First of all I went to greet Moratti and he said to me, ‘You did it.’ The next morning I got home and sat down. My wife was in front of me, I thought about all the things that had happened to me. She asked me, ‘What is it?’ In those moments someone needs to pinch you and tell you. ‘come back to us.'”