Anthony Elanga has impressed for Ralf Rangnick’s Manchester United sop far this season, and the youngster could represent three different nations at international level with Cameroon keen on him

Manchester United’s young starlet Anthony Elanga has been approached to switch nationalities as his stock continues to rise at the Red Devils.

Elanga was born in Sweden to Cameroonian parents, but he moved to England at 12-years-old, making him eligible for all three.

However, the youngster has represented Sweden, the country of his birth, at youth level – and Sweden are confident he will represent them.

But after being called up by the first team, Elanga failed to make an appearance after Untied blocked the call-up.

And Cameroon are now attempting to swoop in to secure the services of the youngster.

According to Footazimuts, Cameroon are trying to tempt the youngster into representing the African side on the international stage.

Elanga’s father, Joseph Elanga, represented the Indomitable Lions between 1998 and 2002, earning himself 17 caps.

He was even part of Cameroon’s side for the 1998 World Cup which was held in France.

However, the report also claims that Elanga’s mother and agent aren’t sold on the side and the talks are ‘complicated’.

Source: Daily Star

The 27th edition of Mount Cameroon Race, Africa’s oldest international athletic competition, kicked off early Saturday in Buea, chief town of Southwest, one of the two English-speaking regions of the country torn by an armed conflict.

Close to 500 athletes from 11 African and European countries and regions are taking part in the race.

The race is taking place under tight security amidst threats from armed separatists to disrupt the event.

Since November 2017, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest to secede from the largely French-speaking nation and form a new country they called “Ambazonia”.

Officials said in spite of the prevailing situation, the race must take place to strengthen Cameroon’s unity and integrity.

“This year’s edition is particularly good. The turnout is impressive which is clear proof of our determination to live together in peace and unity,” Cameroon’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education Narcisse Mouelle Kombi told reporters at the start of the competition.

All security measures have been put in place for the successful unfolding of the race, the region’s governor Bernard Okalia Bilai said.

The race, dubbed Race of Hope, is of a particularly difficult terrain with athletes going up and down the mountain which is over 4,100 meters above sea level.

Source: Xinhuanet

Families of eight people who died in the January football stampede at Yaounde’s 60,000-seat Olembe stadium say they are burying their dead without assistance from Cameroon’s government or the Confederation of African Football. The stampede, which also injured 38, occurred ahead of an Africa Football Cup of Nations match between Cameroon and Comoros Island.

A Roman Catholic Church choral group sang on Friday at a viewing ceremony at Mbalmayo, a commercial town about 50 kilometers to the south of Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

Several hundred people, including teachers, students and merchants came to pay their last respects to Veronique Djilo, a teacher and one of those killed as crowds struggled to get into the stadium to watch the Cameroon national team play against Comoros Island on January 24.

Among the mourners was Etienne Modji, Djilo’s older brother. Modji said it was not easy for him to buy a casket and transport his sister’s body to Bandjoun, a western commercial town where Djilo was born. He said he has not been able to buy enough food for the hundreds of people coming to pay their last respect to Djilo.

Modji said he has not seen the money Cameroon state radio said Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions football team contributed for the injured and families of those killed in the Olembe stadium crush. Modji said his relatives and well-wishers donated money to help his family prepare for his sister’s burial.

Veronique Djilo was a person living with disabilities. She had no lower limbs and was teaching in Mbalmayo.

Emmanuelle Tchotchom, executive president of the nongovernmental organization Inclusive Society for Persons Living with Disabilities said at least 60 people with disabilities traveled to Mbalmayo, ready to accompany Djilo’s body to Bandjoun for burial. Tchotchom said the government did not transport neither Djilo’s body nor the people with disabilities accompanying the casket to Bandjoun, as her association had requested.

Tchotchom said only 12 of the 60 people who wanted to make the trip could afford the fares to and from Bandjoun, where Djilo was buried Saturday.

Three other crush victims have been buried in Yaoundé. Their families also say they did not receive any assistance from the government or the Confederation of African Football, CAF, which organized the tournament.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe visited injured victims at the hospital on January 25 and said it was the duty of host nations to take care of the security and safety of football players, fans and match officials. Motsepe said it is the host country that takes care of injured persons and families of the bereaved.

Cameroon’s team said it donated $85,000 to injured victims of the stampede and family members of those who died.

The injured victims and family members of the dead said they do not know where the money is.

Sports and Physical Education Minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi would not comment this week when asked about the promised assistance to crush victims. He said, though, the injured were treated free of charge as instructed by Cameroonian President Paul Biya.

Cameroon Football Federation officials did not answer reporters’ questions on the whereabouts of the money the Indomitable Lions said they donated.

Source: VOA

The President of the Francophone dominated Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT), Samuel Eto’o travelled recently to Limbe in Southern Cameroons and staged the beautiful game’s support for the one and indivisible Cameroon policy. The Limbe meeting ended its deliberations with the appointment of new members in the executive committee of FECAFOOT. Not even a single English-speaking Cameroonian was appointed to the executive committee.

Federalists such as Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr Joachim Arrey of the Global Think Tank for Africa have already registered their utter disagreement and disappointment with the Eto’o decision. But the French Cameroun football legend is now focused on important Francophone FECAFOOT issues-the most urgent being who to replace the Portuguese António Conceição as head coach of the Indomitable Lions.

We gathered that the new FECAFOOT boss has already made public his intention of appointing Rigobert Song and the decision could be officially announced on Wednesday 23 February 2022. Will Rigobert Song Bahanag be the new coach of the Indomitable Lions?

There is one small thing. Small but great and it is the involvement of Sports Minister Hon. Narcisse Mouelle Kombi.  Minister Narcisse extended the Portuguese António Conceição’s contract last September and on February 13, 2022 a week after the end of the Africa Cup of Nations, the Minister announced his intention to keep the Portuguese technician for the qualification to the FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Qatar in November and December.

Stupid Francophones

On February 14, Samuel Eto’o addressed a letter to the Minister of Sports. In the letter, the FECAFOOT President raised a finger against Minister Narcisse Kombi’s involvement in the affairs of the Cameroon Football Federation.  Samuel Eto’o reminded the minister that according to the texts in force, the administrative, sporting and technical management of all national soccer teams is the responsibility of the Cameroon Football Federation. Eto’o cautioned the Biya acolyte to desist from commenting publicly on maintenance or termination of the contract of the Indomitable Lions head coach.

Interestingly, there was a president at the head of the Cameroon Football Federation before Samuel Eto’o took office! So, how come that it was Minister Narcisse who awarded the Portuguese technician a contract in 2019 at the Yaoundé Hilton Hotel?

Supported in his approach by the executive committee of the federation, which met on February 16 in Limbe, in Southern Cameroons, Eto’o is now planning to appoint Rigobert Song as head coach with the immediate objective of qualifying the Indomitable Lions for the 2022 World Cup.

Eto’o and Song: strange bed fellows?

Rigobert Song Bahanag, now 45 years old, has written some of the most memorable pages in the history of Cameroonian soccer. To be sure, Rigobert Song is the record holder of 137 caps for the national team and has played in four World Cups and eight Africa Cup of Nations. Twice, he was part of the team that brought the cup back to Yaoundé (2000 and 2002).

Song also played for Salernitana (Italy), Liverpool, West Ham (England), Cologne (Germany), Galatasaray and Trabzonspor (Turkey). He ended his career in 2010.

He then became a coach and a member of the executive body within FECAFOOT. A stroke in 2016 forced him to take a break off football matters, but he was able to resume his activities two years later.

During the time when both men wore the colors of Cameroon, Rigobert Song and Samuel Eto’o sometimes had a tense relationship. The former lost his captaincy to the latter in 2009.

Since then, the two former internationals have buried the hatchet. Last August, Rigobert Song publicly supported Samuel Eto’o in his campaign to win the presidency of the Cameroon Football Federation.

Minister Narcisse is reportedly holding meetings in Yaoundé and CPDM commentators are already painting Eto’o as a destructive element.

For his part, Eto’o is fighting the leadership of CAF, FIFA and now- a baron of the CPDM crime syndicate.

By Isong Asu  

Cameroon’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education Narcisse Mouelle Kombi said on Monday that national football team head coach Antonio Conceicao will not be sacked despite failing to win the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy.

“Every time we have won a trophy, it has been with a foreign coach. What is more important now is the [World Cup] playoffs in March. The priority is not to destabilize the team by decapitating it,” Kombi told reporters amid widespread calls to sack the coach.

After Cameroon finished third at the AFCON a week ago, some Cameroonians have demanded the sacking of Conceicao whom they blame for “very poor coaching” during the tournament.

“We are in a phase of rebuilding. When we look at the record under the Conceicao era, we have two defeats out of 23 matches, and 14 matches without conceding a goal,” said Kombi, adding that authorities were confident in his skills but will watch out for any managerial fault.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroonian President Paul Biya commended the national football team, Indomitable Lions, for an “honorable” performance during the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) that was hosted by the Central African nation.

Biya said, despite the fact that the team won what he described as a “small final”, they needed to prepare hard for future competitions.

“The performance of Cameroonian players probably did not meet all the expectations of our fellow citizens. This is why I urge our Indomitable Lions to continue to be always more motivated and united, in order to prepare well for the important future sporting championships,” Biya said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The Indomitable Lions won bronze in the competition after beating Burkina Faso through a penalty shootout.

The four-week championship ended on Sunday with Senegal emerging champions.

Source: Xinhuanet

The tragedy of Marc-Vivien Foé’s death hits much harder at his gravesite.

It overlooks a soccer field, but not the kind the late Cameroon and Manchester City player wanted. The goalposts are part of a shoddy metal frame, unpainted and leaning to one side. The field is bare earth and lined with trash.

There’s a crumbling building nearby with windows and parts of walls missing. The whole site once became a haven for criminals and drug users.

This was meant to be Foé’s dream.

When Foé collapsed on a field while playing for his country at FIFA’s Confederations Cup in 2003 and died in an awful moment for world soccer, he was in the process of building a sports complex and school in the eastern outskirts of his hometown of Yaounde. It was to be his legacy, his gift to his people and a precious resource for budding young soccer players in a part of the world where they get little help.

Foé never got to finish it and instead it became his final resting place.

But at Foé’s funeral, when he was buried with military honors and hailed as a “fallen national hero,” promises were made by representatives of the Cameroon government that the project would be completed in his memory. Nearly 20 years later, it’s in ruins. The only part of the complex that isn’t broken down is the marble block that marks Foé’s grave.

Foé’s nephew, Nama Mvogo, says he visits every week to clean the grave. Every time, he’s struck by how forsaken it appears.

“I feel that my uncle has been abandoned,” Mvogo said. “Even to come and see his tomb, (there’s) nothing. It’s deplorable.”

The last month has been a painful one for Mvogo as he watched his central African country host the African Cup of Nations, the continent’s biggest soccer tournament, for the first time in 50 years. It’s a tournament Foé won twice with Cameroon and Mvogo thought it would be the perfect opportunity to revive Foé’s project, or at least recognize him.

But there was no mention of Foé at the tournament, Mvogo said, and watching Cameroon’s current team play at this African Cup invoked nothing but sadness for him.

Foé played for Cameroon for a decade and also became a popular player in England with West Ham and Manchester City. He died at the age of 28 from an undiagnosed heart condition, which was discovered in the days after he slumped to the ground in the center circle at the Gerland stadium in Lyon, France during the Confederations Cup semifinal against Colombia. It united world soccer in grief.

Tens of thousands lined the streets of Yaounde for his funeral procession. Then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Cameroon President Paul Biya attended the service but Foé’s true value as a person was only revealed when an unknown 14-year-old boy stood up and explained how the soccer star had been paying for him to attend a special center for the disabled.

Since then the academy project fell into disrepair. Mvogo said its future is complicated and Foé’s father and widow, who live in France, and the government haven’t been able to work together to revive it.

But it’s not completely abandoned.

Two small soccer schools make use of the land, somehow managing to train and play games in the dirt near Foé’s grave. The original field Foé marked out was overgrown with palm trees long ago, Mvogo said.

Goalkeeper David Neabo, who plays for an under-9 team, stands under those crooked goalposts clutching a ball. His coach, Ewodo Yves Laurent, said he still invokes Foé’s memory to inspire the kids, who weren’t even born when Foé died and can’t really grasp his success from the dilapidated state of the academy.

“I tell them about Marc-Vivien Foé, who also motivated me to come here,” the coach said. “When I look at what he did, what he became in life, I ask myself why not sustain his dream?”

The only image of Foé at the complex is a statue of him in Cameroon’s team uniform, his right arm raised in celebration. But its proportions are not quite right and the figure appears stunted and doesn’t resemble the powerful 6-foot-2 midfielder Foé was. Years of neglect have chipped away at it and Foé’s green Cameroon shirt is faded and discolored.

Mvogo doesn’t know if his uncle’s dream will ever be realized but a recent incident did give him hope for the future. He came across Eric Djemba-Djemba, the former Manchester United midfielder and Foé’s Cameroon teammate, visiting the grave.

“He said he couldn’t afford to be in Cameroon and not stop here,” Mvogo recalled.

Foé’s memory, at least, remains alive for some.

Culled from AP

Yannick Noah has been a tennis star and a rock star. Now he has a new role in life; chief of his village in Cameroon. It was the dream of his father, Zacharie, who raised his son to become the French Open champion and who saw his grandson, Joakim, become a star in the NBA.

When Zacharie Noah died in 2017, Yannick Noah made a decision to return to the home of his birth, the country he left when he was 12, in order to fulfil his father’s dreams. Now, the 61-year-old Noah is chief of a former village called Etoudi, now a part of Yaoundé.

YANNICK NOAH, SON OF ZACHARIE

In a touching video published by Brut, the 1983 Roland-Garros champion takes cameras around his village, where he is greeted by children at his old school. Pointing out the school that his mother founded, his home and the bedroom that is now a classroom, Noah’s role is to watch over both the children and the elders. The people call him “Papi Yannick” or “Tonton Yannick

Yannick Noah

“I am the patriarch of what used to be a village and now it is one of the neighbourhoods of Yaoundé,” Noah says. “This is my town.”

It was only when his father passed away in 2017 that Noah felt ready to take on the job. In that year, France won the Davis Cup under Noah’s captaincy

“It was like a calling. And his crazy dream was for me to come. And not just that I would take care of it but that I would be there. I don’t think I could have come three years ago, it was not the time. And then, all of a sudden, it was time. It’s my destiny to be here.”

Noah says his biggest job now is to get to grips again with the local dialect but said he’d find a way. “It’s a real responsibility, but I’m a fighter,” he says, with a smile.

Source: Tennismajors