RABAT, Morocco — Widely written off before AFCON, Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions have emerged as one of the tournament darlings, with their dynamic, unified, and tenacious style impressing ahead of facing Morocco’s Atlas Lions in the quarterfinals.
But it’s down to sheer willpower and the players’ experience and skill that they’ve come this far, given the astounding chaos behind the scenes.
While the Central African nation have their own ignominious history of poor tournament preparation, and controversies ahead of major competitions, the build-up to this AFCON was ridiculous even by their standards.
Before the 2014 World Cup, for example, their tournament preparation descended into threats of a boycott, a dispute over bonuses being paid in advance, and the squad refusing to travel to Brazil from their base camp in Germany, with the federation being openly accused by players of corruption and insincerity.
Cameroon were the last team to arrive in Brazil ahead of the tournament — following government intervention — with Head of State Paul Biya personally authorising the payment to the team.
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The chaos transferred to the pitch, with Benoit Assou-Ekotto headbutting Benjamin Moukandjo during a 4-0 defeat by Croatia.
Ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt in 2019, Cameroon endured a similarly messy build-up, with dissent between FECAFOOT and head coach Clarence Seedorf a constant bubbling subplot ahead of the tournament.
Issues of bonuses and allowances again reappeared, with boycotts again threatened, while the team also endured travel disruptions and a logistics fiasco ahead of their opening match. Yet again, the institutional failure was there, with disagreements off the field leading to psychological destabilisation and, ultimately, a collapse.
Seedorf, who struggled to adapt to the rigours, rhythms and requirements of African football, was dismissed before the tournament had ended.
Even against this backdrop, the events that preceded Cameroon’s participation here in Morocco raised the bar, with FA President Samuel Eto’o’s extended civil war with the sports ministry and their chosen head coach, Belgian Marc Brys, ending with the latter’s dismissal on December 1, less than three weeks before the AFCON began.
Eto’o’ installed local tactician David Pagou as Brys’s replacement, and the 56-year-old duly announced a squad that was shorn of several big name players including Andre Onana, Vincent Aboubakar, and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Brys, playing the ‘good employee’ after alleging he was not informed of his dismissal formally by the official channels, nonetheless announced a squad list of his own for the AFCON… revealing a team containing the three prominent absentees.
Andre Onana was not named in Cameroon’s AFCON squad. Getty
For a brief bewildering week, speculation abounded that Cameroon had two separate squads preparing independently for the Nations Cup, only for FECAFOOT to clarify to ESPN that Pagou’s list was the definitive list for the sojourn to Morocco.
Still, the Indomitable Lions had become, once again, the laughing stock of African football, and the weeks of build-up to the tournament — not to mention the preceding year, where Cameroon’s World Cup qualifying campaign had been undermined by the Eto’o-Brys feud — meant that expectations were at a low point before the tournament.
Don’t forget either that this is a Cameroon team who have failed to win a knockout game at the tournament outside home soil since they won the title back in 2017, and even when they did reach the semis in 2022, a favourable draw saw them only pitted against Comoros and The Gambia en route to the last four.
It’s been a while indeed since the Lions were in any position to genuinely be taken seriously in the continental arena, with the set-up under Eto’o increasingly appearing as a decrepit edifice built on the shoulders of past glories.
The absence of André-Frank Zambo Anguissa through injury, depriving Cameroon of arguably the best central midfielder in Africa today, as well as the recent poor form of his midfield partner Carlos Baleba, further fuelled the sense that the Indomitable Lions were set for more continental humiliation in Morocco.
And then, the tournament began.
With Pagou’s warm, paternalistic, relaxed style diffusing tensions and angst off the pitch, and a young hungry team delivering vibrant, dynamic performances on it, appearing to thrive when unburdened with expectation, Cameroon have been the surprise package of the tournament so far.
A Karl Etta Eyong goal six minutes into their opener against neighbours and fierce rivals Gabon appeared to settle the squad and they saw out a 1-0 victory, while they deserve credit for holding their own in the 1-1 draw against the defending champions Ivory Coast.
A shuffled team downed Mozambique 2-1 in Agadir in their final group game, before the Last 16 meeting with South Africa in Rabat, where the Lions rode their luck at times — Bafana Bafana had three decent chances to open the scoring — but ran out 2-1 winners after goals either side of half-time.
Manchester United midfielder Bryan Mbeumo has been Cameroon’s biggest name at AFCON, with a number of stars left out the squad by FECAFOOT boss Samuel Eto’o. FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images
Now they’re into the quarters, where hosts Morocco — a team who have never beaten Cameroon at the AFCON — lie in wait in Rabat on Friday. As has been the case since their arrival, the pressure will be off Cameroon, and they’ll relish the opportunity to be party poopers.
Pagou deserves immense credit for how he has forged a competent, effective team from the tatters of the Brys-Eto’o debacle, having only been parachuted into the role mere weeks before the tournament started.
“When the president gave me the task here, [we said that], if we organise ourselves well, things will go ok,” he told ESPN earlier in the tournament, “and things are going in this way.
“I am still only at the beginning, and we are a team in construction. I had a certain team in mind when I arrived, but the cards were then redistributed during training.
“I’ve still been getting to know everyone, their spirits, who gets on with whom,” he continued. “Football is a collective sport, and while one player can help us win a match, the collective can help us win the competition.”
Be under no illusion, however, this Cameroon are not some wonderful free-flowing footballing side, with Pagou clearly playing to his side’s strengths and settling upon an effective formula, rather than crafting an aesthetically majestic national side.
They’ve averaged only 43 percent possession during the tournament, as was the case against South Africa, for example, often being content to let the opponent have the ball in (largely) harmless areas.
Cameroon’s head coach David Pagou has worked wonders with the team at AFCON, given he’s only been in charge for little over a month. FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images
They even had less of the ball against a modest Mozambique side and a fairly hapless Gabon team, which is evidence of Pagou’s strategy and priorities rather than the varying qualities of the sides in question.
Their passing is among the poorest in the tournament — only three teams have been less accurate with all of their attempted passes so far — while Cameroon are also the least effective dribblers in the competition.
With the sole exception of Manchester United’s Bryan Mbeumo, they just don’t have the players to take on opponents, stretch the play, and beat a man… it’s not what they’re about.
They have played to their strengths, however, with an aggressive, rugged, organised approach, coupled with the right people in the right places, seeing them progress to the Last Eight so far.
They’re one of the most aggressive sides in the tournament, with nine bookings across their four matches so far, and are in the top five teams for completed tackles per match, with Cameroon backing themselves to allow their opponents to play and make the decisive interventions when required.
Pagou has also demonstrated a flexibility and adaptability during the campaign, moving away from his three-at-the-back approach to switch to a back four for the Mozambique game, adding in an extra attacking threat in the process.
“It’s the animation [of the team] that’s the most important, how we move the ball on the pitch,” he continued. “We try to find solutions to the problems the opponents propose to us.
“I’m very happy with our defence, we have some very good footballers, but as I say to my players, there is [the coach’s] advice, and there is individual talent; you need both to be good footballers.”
Central to Pagou’s messaging and his priorities have been the focus on the collective, the team above all else, with the experienced local coach adamant that Cameroon’s only route to the title is by being more than the sum of their parts.
While rumours about that it was Eto’o who decided to dispense with some of the big names before the tournament, it’s an act that also aligns with Pagou’s vision for football.
“The star is the team, and we show it on the pitch, we are always focusing on these questions of collective work,” he concluded. “Football is a collective sport, and we’re always looking to progress with this.
“We are on the right tracks, and we’re succeeding with our bet. We’ll continue in this way.”
Despite their fine run so far, Cameroon remain outsiders against a fearsome Atlas Lions team in Rabat, although Pagou will be acutely aware that, in the nation’s footballing history, great adversity has sometimes led to unforgettable successes for the lions they call ‘indomitable’.
