In his book 'Football against the Enemy,' Simon Kuper states that, " Cameroon is the most successful footballing nation in Africa, but Cameroonians think they should have done better. They see the 1982 World Cup as the one that got away." Espana 82, however, was the first time that Les Lions Indomptables had actually qualified for the World Cup Finals, and only the second time that a sub-Saharan African nation had done so (Zaire being the first in 1974).

Qualification for the 1982 World Cup was achieved with aggregate victories over Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zaire and Morocco, despite it being only the fourth time Cameroon had actually entered the competition. The foundations for the team's success was built on solid home form (four successive wins) aided by a vociferous support in both Yaounde and Douala and stifling weather conditions. In Ian Hawkey's book, Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of African Football, former Zimbabwean goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar gives an explanation of what his team had to face in Douala during the first leg of their 1980, second round tie. "There was the fiercest tropical rainstorm I have ever seen," he recalls, "but almost as soon as it stopped the pitch dried out to be sandy and dusty again." Soon to be crowned African Footballer of the Year, Jean Manga Onguene, opened the scoring for Cameroon, with Gregoire M'Bida adding a second. "That goal (Onguene's) produced one of the strangest experiences of my career," said Grobbelaar. "At first the crowd started whistling. Then the noise became just unbelievable. It was like a swarm of angry bees. It went on and on, ringing in my ears until I thought it was going to drive me crazy. It seemed to affect our entire defence. We lost concentration." It sounds as though Douala may have been the birthplace of the vuvuzela!

The euphoria surrounding Cameroon's qualification had quelled somewhat by the time the squad arrived in Spain in a state of complete disarray. The Federation Camerounaise de football had inexplicably dispensed of the services of Yugoslav coach, Branko Zutic (who had overseen the entire World Cup qualification campaign) after a disappointing African Cup of Nations in March '82 where the team were eliminated following draws in all three of their group games against Ghana, Tunisia and Libya (a portent of what was to happen in Spain, perhaps). Dutchman Kees Rijvers agreed to replace Zutic, but when the Cameroonian delegation stopped in Paris on the way to present Rijvers with his contract, they were persuaded to make former French international and Nantes manager, Jean Vincent, coach instead.

Of Cameroon's twenty-two man World Cup squad, sixteen were domestically based, primarily with the nation's two leading clubs, Can Yaounde (African Champions Cup winners in 1978 and 1980) and Union Douala (1979 ACC winners). Four of the remainder of the squad played in France, the most famous being SC Bastia striker and 1976 African Footballer of the Year, Roger Milla. They also boasted the top African footballer of 1979 in goalkeeper, Thomas N'Kono, who regained this award following his performances in Spain, along with a move to La Liga's RCD Espanol, whom he played for almost a decade. N'Kono encountered fierce rivalry for the number one jersey from Joseph-Antoine Bell, the pair alternating between major tournaments for well over a decade. Interestingly, Cameroon were to use only thirteen players from their squad during the finals.

Drawn in the tough group A with eventual winners Italy, third-placed Poland and Peru, Cameroon adopted defensive tactics in a bid to restore the reputation of Black African football after its disastrous debut campaign eight years earlier when Zaire had lost all three games, conceding fourteen goals without reply. Milla, playing as a lone striker, had an extremely unlucky tournament. In the opening game in La Coruna, a 0-0 draw with the South Americans, he hit the post after just seven minutes and later had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside. In the following game his misfortune continued when he was denied a clear penalty in another goalless draw with Poland. This meant that Les Indomptable Lions had to beat Italy in their final group game in Vigo to progress to the next round, the Italians only needing a draw.

The Cameroonian's pre-match preparations were documented in FIFA's official World Cup film, Gole, narrated by Sean Connery. The players seemed in a relaxed mood as they watched TV at their hotel, ate their pre-match meal and sang loudly and enthusiastically on the coach journey to the stadium. The game itself finished in a credible 1-1 draw for the Lions, Gregoire Mbida, who was to join Milla at AS Bastia after the tournament, equalising just after the hour barely a minute after Graziani had headed the Italians into the lead following an unfortunate slip by N'Kono.

However, M'Bida's joyous celebrations belied a more sinister side to proceedings on the pitch, as Filippo Maria Ricci explains in his book, 'Elephants, lions and eagles: A journey through African football.' He says that, "In 1982 two Italian investigative journalists claimed the Azzurri had paid the Cameroonians substantial backhanders to allow the Italians to get the draw they needed to qualify in the final group game. In Italy the rumours did not go down very well but in Cameroon they confirmed it as fact."

Whether this is true or not, Les Lions Indomptables had restored the status of their continent's football and with a squad average age of just twenty-six, the potential for future successes looked bright. In 1984 under the tutelage of Yugoslav coach Rude Oganovic, who had replaced Vincent, they claimed their first African Nations Crown in Cote d'Ivoire, defeating Nigeria 3-1 in the final with goals from Rene N'Djeya, captain and soon to be named African player of the year Theophile Abega and Ernest Ebongue. They also took part in that year's Los Angeles Summer Olympics, although they suffered a disappointing first round exit, surprisingly losing to Canada, 1-3. A disastrous 1986 World Cup qualifying campaign followed. Now coached by Frenchman Claude Le Roy, Cameroon suffered a second round hammering from Zambia, 2-5 on aggregate. Despite losing their African Nations title on penalties in the final to hosts Egypt, Le Roy's team redeemed themselves two years later in 1988 when Stephen Kunde scored the match-winning penalty in the 1-0 victory over Nigeria in Morocco as they regained their title.

And in 1990 the Cameroonians certainly did do better.

Works cited.

Kuper, Simon. Football against the Enemy Phoenix (Orion Books) (1994) p.122

Hawkey, Ian. Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of African Football Portico Books (2009) p.155-56

Ricci, Filippo Maria. Elephants, lions and eagles: A journey through African football. WSC Books Ltd (2008) p.42