Some 27 home-based and one US-based player have been called to camp at the CAF Technical Centre in Mbankomo near Yaounde, in view of their eventual integration into the national team. The training scheduled to begin today December 13, will end on Friday 17 December, 2010. According to the head of international competitions at FECAFOOT, Martin Etonge, the training will be conducted by the head coach of the Indomitable Lions, Lazaro Javier Clemente, who arrive in the country on Saturday via Douala. Clemente was scheduled to watch the match between Union and Sable of Batie counting for the 5th day of play of the MTN Elite One championship before moving on to Yaounde later on Sunday evening. He will of course be assisted by his second in command, Omam Biyick who published the list of the short listed players for the camp.
According to the tentative programme drawn by Fecafoot awaiting the approval of Javier Clemente, there will be two training sessions each day but there will be only one training session today to take place in the afternoon so as to give players time to report to the training centre after taking part in yesterday’s championship matches. Players from far away distances like those from Coton Sport may have up to tomorrow to report at the training centre.
The short listed players come from 12 of the 14 clubs of the MTN Elite One championship with the exception of Caiman and Scorpion football clubs. Canon of Yaounde and Panthere of Bangante have the lion’s share with four players selected each, followed by Coton Sport of Garoua with three players. Fovu, Astres, Ngaoundere University, Union and Sable have two players each while Renaissance, Unisport, Yong Sports Academy and Tiko United have one player each in the selection. The only exception is that of Andongcho Mathew Mbuta who plays for Crystal Palace Baltimore in the United States of America and currently on holidays in Cameroon.
Among the short listed players, two have been called up before to the national squad namely Hugo Nyame and Abouna Ndzana. Ousmaila Baba on his part has played with the Olympic Lions but never with the senior national team. It is not known how many players would be retained after the training camp. The training camp falls within the framework of the reconstruction of the national team after the disgraceful performance at the World cup in South Africa and comes on the heels of a similar one held in Vichy-France for professional players. The new squad will be tested in a friendly during the next FIFA period in February before putting together the squad that will face Senegal in March in the qualifiers for the 2012 African Cup of Nations to take place in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
