Cameroon’s former keeper and national team captain, Jacques Songo’o has been appointed as the country’s goalkeeping coach ahead of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next June, local media said on Friday 19 February.
Songo’o,who was Cameroon’s keeper at the 1998 World Cup in France, returns to a position he held from February 2005 to February 2006 when Arthur Jorge was Cameroon’s head coach.
Jacques Songo in his playing days
He replaces the legendary Thomas N’kono who captained the Indomitable Lions at their first World Cup appearance in 1982 and was between the sticks in 1990 when the team reached the quarter finals of the competition.
N’kono was first appointed goalkeeping coach in 1999 and held the position until 2002. He was reappointed in 2007 under Otto Pfister and was interim manager of Cameroon when Pfister resigned in June 2009.
Although there has been no official reason for N’Kono’s dismissal, speculation is rife that it might be linked to the performance of Cameroon’s first choice keeper, Idriss Kameni, during the just ended Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. The Espanyol Barcelona keeper was less at ease than usual, conceding a few suspect goals.
Because of Kameni?
The press thinks N’Kono has been complacent because he is also Kameni’s coach at Espanyol Barcelona in Spain. They contend that dropping Kameni’s mentor would generate fair competition for the goalkeeper’s shirt and help “rejuvenate” the team.
But, doesn’t it sound unrealistic to speak of rejuvenation when a 37 year old Souleymanou looks most likely to replace the “ageing” and “underperfoming” 26-year-old Kameni? As far as I am aware they are the two retained for the 3 March friendly against Italy. N’Dy Assembe who was number 3 at the CAN is not in that squad and he has been relegated to the bench at his French club, Valencienne, since he returned from Angola.
Meanwhile, Kameni has been performing admirably for his club (Espanyol,Spain) this month to the point that the French media asked Paul Le Guen if he was surprised by the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde situation of his keeper. His response: “I can understand because the CAN is a whole different context. I can say so now after living it.”
I am not sure how this conflict of interest (being Kameni’s club and national team trainer) may have damaged N’Kono’s discernment on the selection of keepers, however from my experience (as a keeper and team official) the final decision on who plays (including the goalkeeper) is made by a team’s head coach.
The goalkeeping trainer mainly works on the keepers’ drills and techniques as well as their concentration, positioning and organisation of the defence. His advice is important but the ultimate choice is down to the manager.
In search of scapegoats?
To an extent, this change smacks of those knee-jerk reactions by Cameroonian authorities to please angry fans after unsuccessful football campaigns. Curiously, these decisions often involve the sacking of an assistant (or two) while the head coach stays put.
It happened in 2009 after Cameroon’s defeat to Togo in the first game of the last round of qualifiers for the World Cup. , The minister for sport, Augustin Edjoa, sacked coach Otto Pfister’s assistant Ngweha Ikwam and (strangely) appointed 3 other Cameroonians (Jean Paul Akono, Kaham Michel and Ndtoungou Mpile) as assistants. Pfister who was under heavy criticism used this as an alibi for his resignation.
In 2002, after the team was unable to progress from the group stage of the World Cup, Winfried Schaeffer’s assistants were sacked and he stayed on. It was the same story after the Africa Cup of Nations exit at the quarter-finals in Tunisia in 2004 under the same manager.
If it was done at the behest of the Lions’ head coach as some websites are reporting, let’s hope that it was purely on technical reasons for the improvement of the team and not pressure by shady authorities or an immature blame-game.
Cameroonians need victories and we can achieve these victories only when the right players are selected to play in the national team.Peformance of a player should be the yard stick of selecting players by PLG.
The old bullshit. The same people coming and going. No change. What a pity
Thanks very much for this opputunity.Actually that was a very good replacement,atleast let try Songo’o to see his own talent that has in him.Because for me what Nkono’o was doing,was just discrimination,he never wanted to test Sulemandou during the time Kameni was joking because he wasn’t seriouse at all.If may really ask,why didn’t they call for Nocolas Nkoulou amongs the players for 2010 world cup in South Africa because i never saw his name on the list.Thanks,am Cameroonian from SouthWest.
Thanks for writing Tah.
Nicolas Nkoulou is part of the team.
Well, all that Cameroonians need is to see the digrace that these guys earned for us in Angola washed away this time around. I think I, as any other reasonable Cameroonian am worried about the downward trend taken by this great African team that used to be a model.
Something needs to be done,whether by blood or water. Cameroon is well known outside just because of football. I can remember vividly, on the eve of the Angola African nations cup, so many Chinese tv chanels broadcasted Cameroon’s past matches, and when Cameroon was oust from the tournament, most Chinese online stations stopped braodcasting the game. This is just to tell us that if we are really losing our position as African football giants, then we are losing our identity around the world.
Let’s not watch our pride slide from us, please!