Feet of the Chameleon by Ian Hawkey

Author:Ian Hawkey [HAWKEY, IAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-909396-06-7
Publisher: Pavilion Books
Published: 2009-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

La Réunion is almost as east as you can go in Africa. It is a small island almost 500 miles beyond Madagascar. Fly another 120 northwest and you’ll see Mauritius. Réunion is remote in longitude, latitude and in time. It is a throwback, a colonial outpost in that it still belongs to France. French people take beach holidays there. Some Francophone footballers wind down their careers in its local league.

Roger Milla, twice African Footballer of the Year in the 1970s, was doing just that after he left behind his good, solid, much-travelled, 13-year sojourn in the French first division and his distinguished reputation as one of the finest centre-forwards to impact on the African Cup of Nations. He was in his late 30s, had been around the block. ‘To finish my career that way seemed idyllic,’ recalls Milla, ‘because the football there was African, technical, just like I play.’ The level of competition? ‘I believe the top clubs would do okay in the third division in France.’ In between trotting around for JS Saint-Pierroise and playing a spot of social tennis in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Milla planned a trip home to Cameroon just before Christmas 1989, to guest as the star attraction in a testimonial match for his old colleague Theophile ‘Doctor’ Abega. In Douala, a sizeable crowd turned out to watch the old masters. Milla felt sharp, too, and scored a pair of handsome goals. The next morning, newspapers wondered in print if Cameroon’s greatest player, or rather their greatest former player might not do worse than some of the fringe men that Cameroon may be taking the following summer to the World Cup finals, for which the Indomitable Lions had qualified, impressively. The Milla recall made for an entertaining diversion, a curio of a talking point over the New Year holidays.

Three months later, Cameroon travelled to Algeria for the African Nations Cup. The Indomitable Lions were dreadful, losing their first two group games and beating only a lightweight Kenya once they had already been eliminated. They were also a shambles. In goal, Nkono had a poor tournament; so Jo Jo Bell regained the number one jersey. The Lions had new head coach, a Russian, Valeri Nepomniachi who seemed, distant, cold and flummoxed. It was hard even for him to explain why. He spoke no French, and very few words of English.

As the World Cup finals approached, it became clear these factors need be no obstacle to Nepomniachi. There were plenty of loudmouths in the Cameroon party ready to talk instead of him, and people high up in the game’s busy hierarchy willing to take decisions in his place. The state president was one. Soon after the return from Algeria, His Excellency Paul Biya, Cameroon’s leader, demanded Milla go to Italy as part of the Cameroon 22. Biya’s commandment was non-negotiable. ‘He signed a decree,’ recalls Milla, ‘which was brave of the president but a risk. If I was not up to standard, he would take some of the blame.

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