Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o is 'very annoyed' following Jose Mourinho's jibe about his age, according to former Cameroon coach Claude Le Roy.
Chelsea manager Mourinho was caught in conversation by French TV station Canal Plus with the boss of Swiss watch-makers Hublot, explaining that his side did not have anyone to score goals.
He joked that Samuel Eto'o was probably older than 32 and hinted that an ideal solution may be to sign Radamel Falcao because the Colombian deserved a bigger audience than he had at Monaco.
Mourinho was heard saying: 'The problem with Chelsea is I lack a scorer. I have Eto'o but he is 32 years old, maybe 35, who knows?'
The Chelsea boss hit out at the TV station and branded them unethical, but Le Roy says the Cameroon striker is far from happy with his manager.
Sports mail understands that Eto'o was the last to arrive at Chelsea's team-meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday night, arriving 15 minutes late.
And Le Roy, who has coached Eto'o's nation Cameroon twice, claims the striker is angry with Mourinho. Speaking to Canal Plus show Talents d'Afrique, he said: 'I had [Eto'o] on the phone just before I came on screen, and he's very annoyed,.
'Actually, Mourinho went to see him before he saw the pictures and told him to not believe everything that was going to be said. And that he had said nothing about him. But I can tell you that Samuel didn't like it.'
Now Eto'o's former partner, Anna Barranca, has weighed into the argument by claiming the striker is actually 39!
She told The Sun: 'I think Samuel is not 35 he is more 39. Samuel was born in 1974 and so that makes him 39 now.
'It was evident Samuel was older than the age he said he was when he first came to Europe.'
Mourinho said at his press conference in Istanbul that the media should be 'embarrassed' by Canal Plus airing what he claimed was part of an off-the-record conversation.
But, the French TV station offered a robust defence of its actions, arguing Mourinho was fully aware the comments were being filmed.
'These are not stolen images,' Herve Mathoux, the presenter and chief editor of the show which broadcast the Mourinho interview on Sunday, told footballmercato.web.
'The camera wasn't 10 metres away, it's not on zoom. You could see the red light and he was clearly aware he was being filmed, especially as he's someone who comes across cameras so often and who is used to the media.
'Mourinho perhaps did not want to fully assume what he had said. He could have come and seen the journalist and asked us not to use the images. He did not make any special request.'
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