Mini football figure - Cameroon

Cameroon

The Cameroon national football team is the official football team of the African country Cameroon. It is under the national federation Fédération Camerounaise de Football.

The team has won the Africa Cup five times, most recently in 2017. Another success was reaching the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup.

Beginnings

It is said that Georges Goethe, a photographer from Sierra Leone who lived in the Cameroonian city of Douala, brought the game of football to Cameroon in 1923. The Cameroon national football team was formed in 1950, following a trip officials made to France from 13 September to 21 October 1950. The Cameroon selection lost its first match against the French amateur club OGC Nice with a score of 2:3.

Since 31 October 1972, the national team has also been officially known as the "Indomitable Lions". Cameroon hosted the African Championship in 1972.

1980’s

In 1982, Cameroon reached the World Cup finals for the first time. With the legendary Thomas N'Kono in goal, the team earned three draws against Peru, Poland and Italy, but it was not enough to advance: Cameroon was eliminated due to fewer goals scored against the later world champions Italy.

In 1984, the team became African champions for the first time with a 3-1 victory over Nigeria. At the 1986 African Championship, the Cameroonians also reached the final, but lost to the hosts Egypt on penalties. The second title was won in 1988, again with a victory over Nigeria (1-0).

1990’s

The Cameroon national team was the first African country to reach a quarter-final at a World Cup. At the 1990 World Cup, the Cameroon team only lost to England in extra time. Already in the opening match, the team surprisingly won 1:0 against the defending champions Argentina.

The Cameroonians' self-confidence was dampened when they surprisingly missed out on participation in the 1994 Africa Cup. Frenchman Henri Michel became the new national coach and achieved qualification for the World Cup.

After a draw against Sweden and a clear defeat against Brazil, Cameroon also lost in the last match against Russia. Russia's Oleg Salenko scored five goals in his team's 6-1 victory. The interim 1:3 goal was scored by substitute Roger Milla, who thus put an end to his career and at the same time became the oldest World Cup goal scorer of all time. Despite the 6-1 win, Russia were eliminated from the tournament along with Cameroon.

At the 1996 African Championship, Cameroon did not make it past the preliminary round. The team also disappointed at the 1998 World Cup, failing to progress beyond draws against Austria and Chile.

2000’s

In 2002, Cameroon repeated their success at the African Championship two years earlier: Coach Winfried Schäfer's team defended their title in Mali, going six games without conceding a goal. Patrick M'Boma and Salomon Olembé were the tournament's top scorers with three goals each, sharing the title with Nigeria's Aghahowa, who also scored three times.

Cameroon failed to win the World Cup in Japan and South Korea for the second time: Although the team had been voted "Team of the Century" shortly before, it only managed a win against Saudi Arabia. The 0:2 against Germany, the eventual finalist, meant elimination. The following year, however, Cameroon reached the final of the Confederations Cup after beating the reigning world champions Brazil, among others, and was only relegated to second place by France thanks to a golden goal.

In 2004, Cameroon were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup. In November of that year, coach Schäfer resigned from his post due to disputes over bonus payments and also because of a lack of sporting success. His successor was Artur Jorge.

Cameroon missed out on qualification for the 2006 World Cup due to a missed penalty by Pierre Womé in the match against Egypt. Womé, whose house in Milan was vandalised by fans, then resigned from the national team. Coach Artur Jorge was sacked and replaced by Dutchman Arie Haan.

At the 2006 Africa Cup, Cameroon again failed in the quarter-finals. In a dramatic match against Côte d'Ivoire, Samuel Eto'o, of all people, missed a decisive penalty and Cameroon lost 11:12 on penalties. Eto'o had scored five goals in the preliminary round. Although he only played four games, he ended up as the tournament's sole top scorer.

At the 2008 Africa Cup, after a weak first group match against Egypt (2:4 after a 3:0 half-time deficit), Cameroon improved in the course of the tournament and reached the final. There, the team coached by the German Otto Pfister met Egypt again and lost 0:1. As two years before, Samuel Eto'o became the sole top scorer with five goals scored exclusively in the preliminary round. (see also: African Football Championship 2008)

At the 2010 Africa Cup, Cameroon surprisingly lost their first match 1-0 to Gabon and also fell behind early in their second match against Zambia. Geremi Njitap equalised after an hour and Samuel Eto'o gave them a 2-1 lead four minutes later. After equalising in the meantime through a penalty kick, Mohamadou Idrissou secured the win in the 86th minute. In the final group match, the Cameroonians twice cancelled out Tunisia's lead to reach the quarter-finals against Egypt as group runners-up. In this match, Eto'o increased his African Championship goal record to 18. They took the lead through an own goal by Ahmed Hassan, who headed Achille Emana's corner into his own net, but Hassan equalised before the end of the first half. No goals were scored in the second half, so the game had to be decided in extra time. After a back pass by Geremi Njitap, Egypt's Mohamed Nagy scored the decisive goal in the 92nd minute, and a Wembley goal by Ahmed Hassan to make it 1:3 sealed the elimination of Cameroon, who had more than 20 corner kicks but no further goals. The quarter-final exit also meant that Cameroon lost their place as the best African team to Egypt in the FIFA rankings in February 2010 and dropped to third place behind Nigeria in the continental rankings. In April 2010, however, Cameroon was able to overtake Nigeria again.

2010’s

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Cameroon lost all three group matches against Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands and were thus eliminated in the preliminary round. At the 2014 World Cup, the team was also eliminated in the preliminary round after losing three matches against Mexico (0:1), Croatia (0:4) and the hosts Brazil (1:4).

Jersey

The Cameroon national team appeared at the 2004 Africa Cup in a newly designed, body-hugging one-piece. As a design element, traces of lion claws were sewn in above the abdominal muscles. However, Fifa saw this as a violation of its own rules, according to which sportswear must consist of a jersey and trousers. Cameroon was fined CHF 200,000 and deducted six points for the upcoming 2006 World Cup qualifiers. However, the point deduction was later rescinded by Fifa. For the Africa Cup 2002, in which Cameroon won the title, the team had worn new sleeveless jerseys, which were then also to be worn for the 2002 World Cup. However, FIFA had objections and Cameroon was ultimately forced to do without the sleeveless jerseys. As a compromise, black sleeves made of thin mesh fabric were sewn into the jerseys, which were hardly visible but officially complied with FIFA regulations.