Top 11 assist makers of the last decade in the UEFA Champions League

#10 Samuel Eto\'o - 19

The Cameroonian’s glittering career has seen him play for some of Europe’s leading lights – and the reasons are not very difficult to see. After Real Madrid chose to let their one-time youth academy starlet move to Mallorca on a permanent deal, Eto’O may well have joined the sea of nameless, faceless stories that never panned out on the big stage.

But the youngster’s belief saw him rise to be counted as one of the league’s top strikers over the next four years. Barcelona came calling, with a deal that had even Real Madrid (who, as is their wont, still part-owned the player) could not refuse.

Los Blancos would come to sorely regret this piece of business, as the striker formed a deadly duo with the peerless Ronaldinho in a period that saw the Blaugranes rise up and be counted as Europe’s pre-eminent club once again, taking home Old Big Ears (the Champions League trophy) in 2006.

His determination shone through once again, as injuries and a number of controversies would not deny him from forcing his way into new boss Guardiola’s reckoning. A second Champions League title would follow in 2009; a year that saw the Catalans complete that Holy Grail of European football – the treble.

His subsequent move to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan was one Barcelona, too, would come to regret – much the same way parent club Real Madrid did a number of years ago. The Cameroonian shone in his new role on the right flank – his pace and willingness to run for the cause a crucial element of Inter’s Champions League triumph that year.

He remains the only player to have won the treble in consecutive seasons – a true Indomitable Lion.