The Jinx Is Broken and For The Win! Blessed Are The Peacemakers, But Watch Out, Soccer, Africa Is Really Here To Rule
The Jinx Is Broken and For The Win! Blessed Are The Peacemakers, But Watch Out, Soccer, Africa Is Really Here To Rule
Subtitle — How Cameroon restored respect for the Motherland in 1990 and a despicable use of Samuel Etoo Fils, a FC Barcelona Great, As A Metaphor to Denigrate Africa
NB: My hope is that this imaginatively titled feature (for an article reviewing the 1990 World Cup) did not stir up the wrong sentiments from people in Virginia who do not see anything good about the Motherland. This article was first published in the Amherst, Massachusset based African Commentary edited by Okey Ndibe and founded by Chinua Achebe. It is republished for posterity especially in honor of Sam Eto’o, the new Fecafoot president, who will lead the Indomitable Lions to Doha, Qatar.
#WordCount2650
#WhyUnbiasedJournalistsWithExceptionalMemories #AreImportantforGlobalPeace
By Ben Edokpayi ©
Fairfield, California — It took Cameroon’s outstanding performance in the 1990 World Cup for African Soccer to finally earn the recognition and respect it deserves from the superpowers of the world’s most popular game — soccer. This Central African country of 11 million (now 23) million people took center stage all over the world last June as its national team, the Indomitable Lions, as they are called humiliated revered teams from Argentina, Romania and Colombia to reach the quarter-final stage of the World Cup. It was the farthest any African country would advance in 60 years of World Cup action.
The imaginative play of the Cameroonian side was almost like a breath of fresh air for a tournament turned stale by an almost religious dependence on penalty kicks to decide many of its 52 games. Even the final game between West Germany and Argentina on July 8 had to be settled through a penalty kick in favor of Germany. A final featuring Cameroon and West Germany, two sides noted for their attacking flair, would have been a better advertisement for the final of soccer’s most prestigious event.
But the lofty ambitions of the Lions were thwarted by England just as the month-long fiesta entered its final week in July. England was fortunate to emerge 3–2 victors over the Cameroonians in a quarter-final match-up that was perhaps the strongest indication that a change of guard is imminent in a game that has been dictated by European and Latin American nations. In the encounter, the English, who developed and nurtured the game into global prominence clearly looked like a bunch of novices against the African side.
The veteran Peter Shilton who became the most capped goalkeeper (125) in World Cup history, looked vulnerable every time the Cameroonian offense, anchored on the wily play of Roger Milla, stormed his goal area. Although the English side eventually triumphed on a penalty goal that came in extra-time, they looked mediocre and weak against the crisp-moving Cameroonians for most of the encounter.
So did Argentina and Diego Maradona, the mercurial Argentine star player, when they met the Indomitable Lions in the tournament’s opening game in Milan’s imposing Guisseppe Meazza stadium on June 7. Cameroon had come into that encounter a 500 to 1 favorite to win the World Cup. In fact, they were supposed to be mere cannon fodder for Maradona and his prima donnas. But the Africans playing with fluency and tenacity, drilled and then dumped the Argentine legends 1–0. The African side was taken for granted until Francois Oman Biyik, ever so proficient with air balls, scored on a header. Said Maradona after their loss: “I was very comfortable until they scored.”
The Cameroonians, in the estimation of bookmakers, still remained rank outsiders even after their monumental win over Argentina. They were however not taken lightly after their next win over Romania which made them the first team to reach the tournament’s second round of 16 teams.
As they proved eight years before in Espana ’82, the Lions still had a joker in Milla, the 38 year old striker. Milla, who still plays for Saint Pierre de la Reunion, a non-league club in the Indian Ocean Island of Reunion, was a marvel throughout the tournament. Three months before the World cup he had looked on from the stands as the Lions failed to make any impression in the biennial African Cup of Nations won by Algeria. Unimpressed by the Lion’s showing in that tournament Milla returned from his retirement from the national team to wear Cameroon’s colors in the World Cup.
And the one-time African footballer of the year did not disappoint his numerous fans in spite of the fact that he came off the bench in five appearances. Apart from his goals against Romania, Milla tucked in two more behind Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita who has a penchant for leaving his goal area to try and impress with his ball-juggling skills. It was on one such occasion that Milla struck to score his fourth goal of the tournament, the most in World Cup history by any player his age. The “leathery tough” striker also played decisive roles in Cameroon’s two goals in the game against England.
On and off the ball, Milla, like Italy’s scoring dynamo Salvatore Schillachi, was a threat to opposing sides. He often slowed the game down to walking pace and then when he accelerated for a strike at the goal it was often amazing to realize that he was the oldest player (aside from Shilton, 40) at the World Cup. David Seaman is the other top England goalkeeper. How apt for him to have linked his performance to that of one whose “appetite grows as he eats.” Perhaps like George Foreman he might still be active when the World Cup fever reaches the United States in 1994. Even if the 1990 World Cup happens to be Milla’s final play, he and his teammates will remain legends in the hearts of Cameroonians who plan to erect a statue of the striker in Yaoundé, the country’s capital. The Cameroonian government also promised a house and a $50,000 gratuity for each member of the 22-man team that has done the best image-making job for the Central African country since its independence.
The Egyptian team in the World Cup also brought the North African country into sharper focus with its inspiring performance. Although the Egyptian team was not as successful as their Central African African counterparts, they did well in holding Ireland and Holland to drawn games but were edged out of contention by England in their last game.
Not long ago it was common for African teams in global tournaments to be beaten with margins that imitated the score in a game between the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos. This time around, however, the only semblance the Cameroonian performance had to an NFL game was in the players’ feisty tackles. In five games, Cameroonian players committed 132 fouls, 13 were booked, two were ejected and four starters — Victor Akem Ndip, Jules Onana, Kana Biyik and Emile Mbouh Mbouh — had to sit on the sidelines during the game with England: the penalty for receiving two yellow cards each.
In the 1974 World Cup, Zaire lost 9–0 to Yugoslavia. That woeful showing was for a long time the basis used in judging African teams in competitions organized by FIFA, the world soccer body. Morocco in the 1996 World Cup in Mexico effectively changed that image of African teams as whipping boys when it became the first African country to reach the second round of the World Cup. And then two years later Zambia stunned Italy with a 4–0 drenching in soccer at the Seoul Olympics. The Italian print media scrambled for maps of the African continent to locate the southern African nation, just like some English tabloids did on the eve of their country’s encounter with Cameroon.
African countries have shown even greater promise in youth soccer tournaments. In 1985, a Nigerian squad beat West Germany 2–1 to become the first winners of the World Cup for 16-year old’s and under. Another Nigerian team also reached the final of the World Youth tournament staged last year in Saudi Arabia. That team came back from a 4–0 half-time deficit to equalize and then go on to beat a powerful Russian team on penalties in what has now become the “Miracle of Damman” in soccer history. #WhyVladmirPutinIsIncensed!
These showings by African youths in global tournaments are signs of a greater threat to the European and Latin American domination of the game. All over the continent the game is played and followed with great enthusiasm. In many African countries it is somewhat common for a 12-year old kid to pick Milla, Thomas Nkono (the Cameroonian goalkeeper), Rabah Madger (the Algerian star player) or Stephen Keshi (the Nigerian who plays Anderlecht of Belgium), as his role model.
Many African governments often cash in on this fervor by using outstanding sports achievements such as Cameroon’s to shower teams with gifts that sometimes serve to turn the people’s attention away from the immediate problems of high inflation and unemployment. The players and their followers often enjoy this deviation because soccer has become a passionate pastime for which some are ready to die for. In one of the African qualifying games for the World Cup, Sam Okwaraji, a Nigerian star player, collapsed and died during a game with Angola last year. And then during the World Cup an Egyptian government official committed suicide following his country’s loss to England.
One interesting fall-out of this religious adherence to the game is the flowering of many talents across the continent. European scouts have cashed in, turning their searchlights on African countries like Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Zaire, Cameroon, Algeria and Morocco.
Half of the Cameroonian players at the World Cup play for teams in the French or Spanish league. The prominent ones include Nkono who keeps goal for Espanyol of Barcelona. Oman Biyik who plays for Laval in the French second division, Cyrille Makanaky, the midfielder who plays for Toulon of France, and veteran defender Emmanuel Kunde who plays for Reims in the French league.
Over 150 Africans play in France alone. The recruitment of African players by other top European teams like Portugal’s FC Porto, Holland’s P.S.V Eindhoven and Belgium’s Anderlecht has led to a strong African presence in European soccer. The Italian league, arguably the best in the world, has however, remained passive towards talents from Africa. But a change of attitude is likely to come with the performance of Cameroon and Egypt in the recent World Cup.
FIFA has already acknowledged the tremendous growth of the game in the continent by promising Africa a third team among the 24 nations expected to play in the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
When Eagles Dare the Lions! But How Did Samuel Eto’o Fils Become Part Of the Spin?
One of the saddest moments of my career as the Sports Editor of Newswatch was watching the Super Eagles crumble in their WCQ game against perennial nemesis Cameroon at the OmniSport Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon in 1989. That defeat was another stumbling block in Nigeria’s perennial effort to qualify for the World Cup. The Super Eagles finally qualified for their first World Cup in 1994. And fortunately I was here as a reporter for the Fairfield newspaper and was accredited by FIFA to report on the 1994 World Cup from The Los Angeles and San Francisco Venue #TheWin. Now a Legal Matter! https://www.facebook.com/fifaworldcup/ This is my opening paragraph of that story titled “ No Breaking the Jinx.” “Stephen Keshi, skipper of the Green Eagles, paused and turned misty-eyed, to take a last look at the OmniSport in Yaounde as he descended the tunnel leading into the dressing room. Some meters away stood Osaro Obobaifo, a midfielder on the team, transfixed to a spot. He continuously muttered “How am I going to explain this (the defeat)” to no one in particular. Their World Cup dreams had just vanished like powder puff. The Eagles, once again, had been plucked down by the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, August 27, before more than 100,000 fans at the State Omnisport in Yaounde. (My friend and brother, the Antioch, California-based Keshi died in 2016 Nigeria of a heart-attack as he was preparing to return home to California. In this picture with Keshi taken at my Fairfield, California home is another Super Eagles defender Godwin Odiye. Both of their careers crossed paths with Samuel Eto’o Fils, the Cameroonian forward known as one of the best strikers in the world. Eto’o who was inspired by Roger Milla, Cameroons greatest player also played with the late Marc Vivien Foe, who collapsed and died on the field of play for his Nation. He wore jersey #17 for the Indomitable Lions, and was among Cameroonian players that I interviewed in 1994 in their tune up match for the World Cup. That friendly encounter was versus west Germany. Of course Vivien, who started his career in 1990 at Union de Garoua and not Richmond (depicted by Eto’o Fils from a Yellow Banana at Donald Bejide’s Richmond Yellow Cab Garage) was a friend. I do not have any foe, unless some racists and xenophobes have decided to brand me as a foe because I am outspoken through my work as a journalist just like Samuel Etoo is a star with his scoring boots.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/23052120
A precocious talent, Eto’o moved to Real Madrid as a 16 year old. Due to competition in his position with more experienced players, he had several loan spells, before signing for Mallorca in 2000 where he scored 70 goals. His impressive form saw him join Barcelona in 2004 where he scored 130 goals in five seasons and also became the record holder for the most number of appearances by an African player in La Liga.[7] Winning La Liga three times, he was a key member of the Barcelona attack, alongside Ronaldinho, that won the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final, with Eto’o scoring in the final, and was part of a front three of Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry that won the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final, with Eto’o again scoring in the final. He is the second player in history to score in two UEFA Champions League finals. At Barcelona, Eto’o came in third for the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2005 and was twice named in the FIFA FIFPro World XI, in 2005 and 2006.
In 2010, he signed with Inter Milan, where he became the first player to win two European continental trebles following his back-to-back achievements with Barcelona and Inter. He is the fourth player in Champions League history, after Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa, and Gerard Piqué, to have won the trophy two years in a row with different teams.[8] After brief spells with Anzhi Makhachkala, Chelsea, Everton, and Sampdoria, Eto’o found prolific form again in the Süper Liga with Antalyaspor having scored 44 goals in 76 league games. In 2015, he received the Golden Foot Award.
As a member of the Cameroon national team, Eto’o was a part of the squad that won the Gold Medal at the 2000 Olympics. He also won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2000 and 2002. Eto’o has participated in four World Cups and six Africa Cup of Nations. He is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations, with 18 goals, and is Cameroon’s all-time leading scorer and third most capped player, with 56 goals in 118 caps.[9] Eto’o announced his retirement from international football in 2014.
So there you have the narrative for the Samuel Etoo Fils transplant. A play on the name Samuel Etoo. My landlord Sam Ezo is the one who has been in a foursome with a relative from Nigeria in California, which is definitely not the same as what happened between me and my three Hollywood women. That is where Z got the script from #Samoa.
