Le Guen and Rigo
Paul Le Guen has not included Rigobert Song and Geremi Njitap in Cameroon’s squad to face World Champions Italy in a friendly next 3 March in Monaco,but he has re-called Sebastien Bassong and picked Mabouka Massoussi and Abouna Ndzana from Astres Douala, local media reported on Tuesday.
Cameroon’s most experienced players, Song (133 caps) and Geremi (109 caps) were heavily criticised by Cameroonian media and fans for the Indomitable Lions’ woes at the just ended Africa Cup of Nation is Angola. The World Cup bound squad conceded 8 goals in 4 matches and were knocked-out in the quarter finals by Egypt.
It is unusual that the former captain (Song) and his deputy (Geremi) are left out of camp except they are injured or suspended. News of their absence has generated speculation in the media that they might miss the World Cup in South Africa next June.
“They (journalists) are going about it in the wrong manner,” a top official of the Cameroon football Federation (Fecafoot) told Gef’s Football Club.
“The coach is using the opportunity to test new players because he may not have another chance to have in the squad before May. It doesn’t mean those who have not been called-up have been barred from the team,” he added.
“He can only have a set number of players for a match like this and therefore cannot call everyone,” the official said.
Five other players who were part of the Africa Cup team were also not retained in the 22-man list that was read on State radio (CRTV). They are: Gilles Binya, Stephane Bikey, N’Dy Assembe, Aurelien Tchedjou and Paul Alo’o Efoulou.
Back to the Den
Meanwhile, Dorge Kouehmaha, the in form striker of Belgian side Club Bruge has been called to camp for the first time under Paul Le Guen. His name was usually on the list in Otto Pfister’s time in-charge but he only managed to play for a few minutes in a friendly against Guinea in February 2009. Le Guen was recently in Belgium to see him perform for his club.
The manager is also expecting Bennoit Assou-Ekotto who picked-up an injury before the Africa Cup and Joel Matip – the teenager born of a German mother and Cameroon father – who missed the tournament in Angola because authorities could not process his Cameroonian passport.
“I can confirm that he got his passport today (Tuesday),” the Fecafoot official told Gef’s Football Club.
“I can also confirm that the boy is ready to play for us as is his brother (Marvin) who also has all his papers,” he said.
“But am not sure about the coach’s interest in Marvin given that he has not been playing much this season. Besides, we still have to approach FIFA to process his file because he already played for the Germans which is not the case for Joel,” the top official explained.
The confusion over Joel Matip’s selection before the Africa Cup sparked debate over the coach’s team selection methods. This might just be re-ignited with regards to his criteria for picking the two Astres players given that he has hardly watched any local football in the country.
It is, however, the first time in nearly half a decade that outfield players (not goalkeepers) based in Cameroon are called to camp with the Indomitable Lions.
Gef’s Football Club will return with a closer look at the list which mainly features players who represented Cameroon in Angola (as you can see below).
- Idriss Carlos Kameni ( Espagnyol Barcelona, Spain)
- Souleymanou Hamidou ( Kayserispor, Turkey)
- Achille Webo ( Mallorca, Spain)
- Samuel Eto’o ( Inter Milan, Italy)
- Alexandre Song ( Arsenal, England)
- Nicolas Nkoulou ( Monaco, France)
- Georges Mandjeck (Kaiserslautern, Germany)
- Achille Emana ( Real Betis, Spain)
- Landry Nguemo ( Celtic Glasgow, Scotland)
- Henri Bedimo Nsamè ( Lens , France)
- Somen A Tchoyi ( Red Bulls Salzburg, Austria)
- Enoh Eyong Tarkang (Ajax, Holland)
- Jean II Makoun ( Lyon, France)
- Stéphane Mbia (Olympique Marseille, France)
- Idrissou Mohamadou ( SC Freiburg, Germany)
- Benoit Assou Ekotto( Tottenham, England)
- Sebastien Bassong ( Tottenham, England)
- Mabouka Massoussi (Astres FC de Douala)
- Abouna Ndzana (Astres FC de Douala)
- Nounkeu Dany (Toulouse, France)
- Joël Matip (FC Schalke 04, Germany)
- Kouemaha Dorge Rostand ( FC Bruges)
I think it will be nice to allow the coach to decide who to select to play.The lions ended thier thier CAN in a very shamful way.Players should be selected on merits,and this is the time the players must convince the coach that he can defind the colours of the nation come June in South Africa.
Football is a continuation.Cameroon need new and young players for future competitions and this is the time to start preparing the team.The dropping of Song and Geremi for this friendly encounter against Italy shouldn’t raise any dust.These two guys have given much to Cameroon and we are all grateful for their services.I belief they are matured to know that there is time for everything thus they cann’t play football all thier lives.
The media boys and girls in cameroon should try to limite the way they criticise the players and to an extend the coach.In my opinion there is alot of work for the media to do in cameroon in both the political and economic domain.
I’ll personally….Song, Geremi or Chedjou if they come 100m close to that team. I still don’t understand what landry nguemo is doing there. drop him and pick up Alo’o Effoulou. Wtf is PLG doing with three left backs, Ekotto, Bedimo and Massoussi? Confuse coach.
Killer Bitter,
what do you mean by confused coach; you are the one who is confused if you don’t know anything about football just shut up
Le Guen should stick to his guns. It seems the coach is reading our suggestions. In one of my contributions, I suggested that Song and Njitap should not be invited to Lions camp in order to avoid intimidation, fear and lack of enough confidence by the younger players. Now, he should not go back and invite the players. Even, if some of the younger players may not play, they will at a minimum learn from the bench.
We can still repair the damage done at the ACN by going all the way at the WC. I saw the way we played against Egypt, despite the fact that we lost, we played modern football.
Good luck to the Lions and God bless Cameroon.
Martins Mbo Nnoko
i think dropping Song and Geremi from the national team is not a bad idea,and let this decision not only be temporal , but definate.their continuation is only going to bring more shame to the cameroonian football.the coach decision should be firm ,notwithstanding external influence from the authorities. l
it is a good idea dropping song and geremi let us now see what the young songs can also do,i also hope these players are drop for ever because if there are coming back then that will be evil, our next target now is kameni , he should be told that Cameroon is blessed with many potentials of goal keepers, i think his performance from the nations cup doesn’t deceived him to be a guardian in la liga
I strongly believe that we are heading in the right direction. We know we need experience players in our squad but these players also need to be over performing in their clubs. The world cup is a competition and there is no room for errors. We need to be in the competion right from the very first day we are called up to serve our nation. Many teams have always exploited Cameroon’s lack of concentration at the beginning of the first and second halves. We need to change this altitude of always conceding early goals and then we start playing. It will be nice if the players watch videos from our 1990 selection and the other selections before 1990.
This goes to Eto’o. Please our captain try and put up a serious look just for 90 minutes. That will help improve on your concentration and that of your squad. Hand shakes here and there and broad smile with your oponnent before and during the match should be reserved for the end. Watch the video of your heros before all the serious matches they played. They came in as angry lions and came out always victorious.
Great move! This should be a supported idea to take away Song and Geremi to try out other players. What other way can we investigate the talents of others.
I also would imagine that Le Guen will realise Kameni’s performance at the last CAN was less than acceptable. In as much as I recognise Kemeni’s contribution to the National team, I think his performance has to be proven unrivalled. otherwise, we need of Goalkeeper as well.