Though no Cameroonian club qualified for the final of the prestigious African champions League, Cameroon will be represented by two players; Yaya Banana and Guy Roger Toindouba. Both footballers, play for the Tunisian club side, Esperance of Tunis which is engaged in the final of the Orange African champions league against Al Wydad of Morocco. Yaya Banana was called up to the national team for the very first time by Dennis Lavagne to take part in the LG tournament in Morocco and a friendly match against Algeria. Toindouba on the contrary has flirted with the other categories of national teams and the military football squad.
Meanwhile the Tunisian club side Esperance has resumed intense training in preparation for the crucial encounter against Morocco’s Al Wydad Casablanca in the first leg of Orange CAF Champions League final scheduled for November 6th in Casablanca. Almost all the Esperance players except for midfielder Magdy Traoui, who is suffering from an injury, are in training. Coach Nabil Maaloul has most of his squad available for selection but midfielder Khaled Mouilhy is ruled out.
Esperance lost 2-1 to the newly promoted Bani Khelad in a friendly match on Saturday. Esperance took the lead through an own goal from Abdul Salam Bouhosh before the visitors scored twice through Naim Berrabt. Esperance of Tunisia qualified for a second consecutive African Champions League final by defeating Sudanese visitors Al-Hilal 2-0 Saturday.
The predictable victory behind closed doors at the national stadium in a Tunis suburb completed a 3-0 aggregate success for the 'Blood and Gold', who won the competition in 1994 and have been losing finalists three times since.
Deprived of crowd support after trouble in a group match last month, Esperance took the lead seven minutes into the second half through Youssef Msakni and Wajdi Bouazza added a second in the final minute. Msakni grabbed the lone goal of the first leg in Omdurman two weeks earlier and has so far struck five goals in the competition this season; two less than leading scorer Edward Sadomba from Hilal. Defeat was particularly bitter for the Sudanese side, who axed Serb coach Milutin Sredojevic after the first-leg loss, as they were failing at the penultimate stage for the third time within five years.
