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| CAMEROON: IDRISSOU back within the “Indomitable Lions”. |
Arie HAAN, the dutch coach of the national football team has decided to call back within the “Indomitable Lions” MSV Duisbourg (german 2d League) the attacker Mohammadou IDRISSOU who has not been selected in the national team since 2004, after the final round of ANC which took place that year in Tunisia. HAAN’s decision is the result of the injury suffered on a knee 2 weeks ago by Samuel ETO’O Fils who has just been successfully operated on and will be kept away from the playing fields for about 5 months.
Among the 20 players selected for the the next match to be played at Yaoundé on october 8 against the “Nzalang National” (the Equatorial Guinea national team chich defeated Liberia in Monrovia 2-1 on september 3 for the 1st round qualifying match) appears Pierre WOME NLEND who was arbitrarily sacked by Philippe MBARGA MBOA. The former minister of Sports of Cameroon by the time did not put up with the fact that WOME had failed to score a crucial penalty kick at the very last minute of the last qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup played against Egypt in Yaoundé. This brought WOME a lot of trouble: he was threatened with death at a point that he had to flee, and some his relatives were mauled by a furious crowd. Apparently WOME has not forgotten this mistreatment so far since he has just said no to HAAN’s convoking and informed the coach that he has decided to forget all about the “Indomitable Lions” and one can easily understand him. But HAAN still has great hopes of convincing him to change his mind and he perfectly understands that WOME be psychologically unprepared to play a match with the “Indomitable Lions” in present conditions but yet he still also hopes to bring him to accept to play the matches involving the national team out of Cameroon in a first step. Arie HAAN makes no secret of the fact that he will need WOME’s talent and experience for the coming commitments of his team. According to some reliable sources the new Cameroun minister of Sports has just sent a letter to WOME NLEND to encourage him and let him know that the failed penalty business is definitly over.
To supply WOME’s absence HAAN has just decided to call back another “old boy”, Lucien METTOMO who plays for FC Lucerne (Switzerland), and Bill TCHATO is also back. Some of the selected players are rather raw recruits or have scarcely been present with the “Indomitable Lions” in the past: Stéphane MBIA ETOUNDI (Rennes, french 1st Division), ATEBA BILAYI (Châteauroux, 2d Division), Justice WARMFOR of Germinal Beerschot Anvers (Belgium), and above all the “freshman” Jacques ELONG ELONG who plays for Persepolis in Iran. Arie HAAN who was his coach in Persepolis until he was appointed as the “Indomitable Lions” coach in august 2006 says he attentively surveys ELONG’s evolution because he is convinced that the guy has necessary potential to become a great attacker. Another “old boy” who has been called back into the selection is Achille EMANA who finally decided not to leave his team (Toulouse FC), but he has never been able to put his enormous potential and his physical power at the disposal of his partners of the national team each time he has been playing official matches with them. Let’s hope for him that this new opportunity given to him will be the good one. On the other hand the absence of a player such as Aliou SAIDOU (Nantes FC) from the “happy 20” is surprising but HAAN justifies it by explaining that these last days SAIDOU has not been that good (as well as his team by the way). He also says that the guy did not really scintillate during the 1st qualifying match palayed and won by the “Indomitable Lions” against Rwanda in Kigali on septembre 3. Nevertheless SAIDOU is on a waiting list in case one of the selected midfielders is wounded. Concerning BIKEY who has not been playing for quite a time (he plays for West Ham, England Premier League) says HAAn it would have been unfair to select him this time.
It is neverthely a fact that what I could call “the MBAMI case” remains. The Paris Saint-Germain former player who was transferred to Olympic de Marseille (OM) the very last day of the summer “mercato” has not played with the “Indomitable Lions” for about 2 years. As soon as he got to Marseille he has been given a tenure in the midfield of OM team notwithstanding the fact that he had not played any match for one month. That just shows you how he is a strapping fellow in an OM team which has a lot of good midfielders. So why is he absent from the list of the 20 “Indomitable Lions” ? Even if it is him too decided to leave the national team the fact is that he took this decision during Winfried SCHÄFFER era distinguished by all kinds of erring ways and a good deal of experimentation of trial and error that put a lead seal on the “Indomitable Lions’s” results. The non qualification of the “Lions” for the World Cup 2006 goes back to that period. So the question to rise is: at a very moment when the “Indomitable Lions” are no longer really self-confident and overbearing, at a very moment when new young talents are long to appear, can or must the Cameroon staff allow himself to keep aside a player with the caliber of MBAMI, even if he has not really reached his former top level and even if he has a personality that some people consider strong?
Samuel MBAJUM
05/10/2006 |
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