A NEW version of a familiar name appeared on the international football scene this month as Etienne Eto’o Pineda made his first appearances for the Cameroon national team at youth level.

The 19-year-old is the son of Cameroon, Barcelona and general football legend Samuel Eto’o, and made his first steps on the international stage at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations in Mauritania this month.

The tournament is one of a number of events the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has been able to organise in 2021 so far, despite the postponement of the region’s showcase event, the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which has been pushed back to January 2022.

Across other regions, international youth tournaments have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning a generation of young players will miss out on such experiences.

These cancelled competitions include the high-profile youth equivalent of the Champions League, the Uefa Youth League, as well as the Under-19 European Championships, and the U17 and U20 Fifa World Cups.

This has not been the case for CAF, though, who have managed to organise the U20 and U17 Afcon tournaments in the early months of 2021.

They have also staged the postponed 2020 African Nations Championship — a tournament for which only Africa-based players are eligible for selection, differentiating it from Afcon — at the beginning of this year.

Cameroon hosted the African Nations Championship in January and February and went some way to demonstrating that the country is now ready to go full Afcon next year.

Afcon 2019 was supposed to be held in Cameroon but was moved to Egypt due to worries around the tensions in the central African region caused by the Boko Haram insurgency and the Anglophone Crisis. It was then decided that Cameroon would host the subsequent tournament.

This year’s African Nations Championship acted as a dry run for Afcon 2021, and was facilitated by the fact that only players from domestic leagues in Africa are eligible, making the logistics easier and meaning players, staff and media weren’t arriving from all over Europe during the pandemic.

A small number of supporters were even permitted to enter stadiums to watch the games, with all participants and fans adhering to strict Covid protocols throughout.

Cameroon have been given further reason to be optimistic on the football front thanks to the emergence of a potential future star in the shape of young Eto’o.

The teenager, who shares a first name with his uncle — Samuel’s younger brother Etienne Emmanuel Eto’o — scored two goals at the U20 Afcon in Mauritania last weekend.

Both strikes came in a group stage match against Mozambique, the first of which was an unbelievable free-kick that arrowed into the top corner from some distance out to the left of the goal.

It was one of a number of impressive free-kicks seen during the early stages of a tournament in which Cameroon were eventually knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Ghana last week following a penalty shootout.

This means Eto’o will not feature in the tournament’s slightly higher-profile latter stages, and will not get to add to his goal tally which could have made him the top scorer. But clips of his free-kick against Mozambique will no doubt do the rounds for years to come as he progresses to senior football.

Merely playing in a youth tournament is more than many young players have been able to at this time, and will have already increased the profile of a player of whom much is expected.

“Bearing this name on the shirt is difficult,” the teenage Eto’o told Transfermarkt back in 2019.

“From an early age, people expected to see Samuel Eto’o at his best in me.

“Many people wanted me to play like him, but of course with the body of a child or teenager that is really hard and frankly impossible.”

It is a familiar situation for sons of former footballing greats, and it’s something which Eto’o is obviously already aware of and ready to deal with.

He was born on the Spanish island of Mallorca when his father was playing in La Liga for RCD Mallorca prior to his move to Barcelona.

This means Etienne is also eligible for Spain where he plays his club football in the country for Real Oviedo under-19s, but this Afcon U20 tournament has given him his first taste of international football and that it has come with Cameroon could see him at least emulate his father in terms of his chosen nation.

“There is always pressure in life whether or not you are the son of a famous person," Eto’o told CAF Online last week. “I just try to enjoy my career and demonstrate to people that I can do it.

“I want to try and be better than him and I am always looking forward to stepping on the pitch and giving my best.

“Even though I know it is difficult to be better than my father, I want to work hard to achieve like him.”

Next year’s Afcon showcase may come too soon for Eto’o in terms of turning out for the senior side on home soil, but anything can happen at this stage of a footballer’s career.

Off the pitch, Cameroon will now be focused on making sure the rescheduled 2021 tournament goes ahead in the country.

On it, they will be looking to make sure young Eto’o chooses them over Spain, so a senior cap may arrive sooner rather than later.