The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 624 (May 29 - June 11 2024)

Page16 TheTrumpet MAY 29 - JUNE 11 2024
Sport
The old lion and the cub
By FIFA.com
FIFA spotlights a World Cup record:
Two of the most implausible of call-ups enabled two Cameroonians to set one at USA 1994.
Twins, the 1988 Hollywood
blockbuster, featured the
oddest double act in
cinematic history. It comprised
Vincent, a pudgy, 4ft 10ins crook
played by Danny DeVito, and
Julius, a happy-go-lucky hulk
played by former Mr. Universe
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Its final
scene was as emotional as it was
euphoric. The brothers finally found
their long-pursued mother.
That same year, the final scene of
a script written 13,000-plus
kilometres away also saw tears and
cheers. Its solitary star was a man
who, like Schwarzenegger, once
dreamed of competing in the
Olympics. Roger Milla, whose
teenage target was to become a
gold-medallist in the high jump, was
ending one of Africa’s greatest-ever
football careers. The hip-wiggling
forward had become the first
Cameroonian to be named African
Footballer of the Year. His 1981
brace had upset Morocco and
qualified the Indomitable Lions for
a first World Cup. He was retiring as
his nation’s all-time leading
marksman, on 38 goals from 61
outings, and fresh from propelling
them to a second AFCON crown in
three editions. His extravagant sendoff,
marketed as ‘Roger Milla
Jubilee’, featured local legends such
as Joseph-Antoine Bell and Francois
Omam-Biyik, and Gallic royalty
Manuel Amoros and Alain Giresse.
Salif Keita and Pele sent their wellwishes.
A staggering crowd of
115,000 watched the second match
in Yaounde, with its headliner
swapping sides at half-time just as
‘The King’ had done at his own
swansong between New York
Cosmos and Santos in 1977.
An awestruck 11-year-old will
never forget watching it live on
national television. Not even the
most fanciful of scriptwriters could
have concocted the same kid going
on become Milla’s team-mate at a
World Cup in the statal setting of
Twins. There was, however, an
intervening chapter. In April 1990,
Milla played in a charity game in
Douala. Cameroon President - Paul
Biya, in the crowd, was wowed. He
asked the former Saint-Etienne and
Montpellier man to go to Italia ’90.
The soon-to-be 38-year-old laughed
it off. The following day Biya called
Milla. After some persuasion, ‘Old
Lion’ came around. Biya, thrilled,
called Cameroon coach Valery
Nepomnyashchy and told him the
news. The bull-headed Russian
responded that it was not happening.
Biya actioned Presidential privilege.
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon
He issued a decree, Milla signed it
and Nepomnyashchy had no choice
but to accept. Milla went on to be a
sensation at the tournament,
averaging a goal every 59 minutes
and 30 seconds of action as
Cameroon became the first African
representatives to reach the quarterfinals.
It seemed unthinkable at the time
that there could be life in Milla’s
World Cup career. No outfield
player in their 40s had ever been to
the global finals. Yet when Henri
Michel reserved 22 seats for
California, where their Group B
outings would unfold, his was one.
So too, preposterously, was the kid
who had watched Milla’s swansong
Roger Milla at the Olympic Village Beijing in August 2008 (Photo - Jmex, CCA-SA 3.0 Unported) Continued on Page 15>
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