The National Team is bustling with some of the finest talents on the planet yet unable to prove their mettle in the squad.
Ever since the debacle at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Indomitable Lions have been on a slow but steady downward trend, moving from the 11th position in 2009 on Fifa world ranking to the 64th presently. Cameroon who had averagely occupied the 30th position on world ranking also dwindled at the continental level, dropping from the first to the 13th. The free fall can’t be attributed to lack of talents as the national football team is bursting with some of the finest talents to have treaded the phase of planet earth.
There is Samuel Eto’o Fils whose reputation is globally acclaimed and the likes of Alexandre Song who plays for Arsenal in England. Eric Maxim Choupo Moting plays for Mayence in Germany, Eyong Enoh of Ajax Amsterdam, Benoit Assou Ekotto of Tottenham, budding talents like Nicolas Nkoulou, Salli Edgar and Dany Nounkeu who has just signed a 4.5 million euro deal to Turkish club Galatasary, just to name a few.
This therefore means the problem lies elsewhere not with lack of talent. The difficulty has been to harness this galaxy of stars to a homogenous football team. Turning the star studded squad into a veritable football where egos will melt into a collective spirit with the main goal of rendering honour to the nation.
After the disappointing performance in South Africa, instead of carrying out a complete diagnosis of what transpired, Cameroon applied cosmetic changes thereby treating the symptoms and leaving the virus. The blame was attributed to some players who were sidelined from the squad while the malaise went on. The conflict of egos showed its ugly head when Alexandre Song refused a handshake from Eto’o Fils and instead of seeking reconciliation, Fecafoot preferred to put the blame on Song to please the ego of the captain.
The same high handed manner was used to clamp down on a player-revolt over non payment of bonuses and in the course deprived Cameroon of its lethal strike force in the face of crucial encounters counting for the qualifiers for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and 2014 World Cup, with the suspension of Samuel Eto’o Fils. Astonishingly, issues of non payment of bonuses were raised again after the encounter with the Democratic Republic of Congo with selective payments made only to those who featured on the match sheet. This measure breaks the team dynamism or spirit and makes players to think of finances when they should be thinking intensely only about football.
