On 14 June 1990, in the Italian port of Bari, a goalless and unremarkable Group B game between Cameroon and Romania was turned on its head just after the hour, and the fortunes of African football turned with it.
On came a little-known 38-year-old, his gap-toothed smile familiar to few outside Cameroon, France or those who closely followed the Indomitable Lions' previous World Cup appearance in 1982.
Seven months earlier, had been winding down his playing days in the island paradise of Reunion, his boyhood dream of using his footballing prowess to "make Cameroon great" having seemingly been reached when he helped them to a second Nations Cup in 1988.
But two things changed all that. A home visit to play a testimonial in December 1989 brought a sprightly two-goal display, highlighting his continuing powers, and a Milla-less Cameroon made an early Nations Cup exit just months later.
President Paul Biya issued an extraordinary decree - that the 1976 African Footballer of the Year must be included in coach Valeri Nepomniachi's final World Cup squad.
Read the rest of this entry
have one of Africa's most fascinating footballing histories, packed full, as it is, with passion, pedigree and political intrigue. But it is also irrevocably bound up with France.
This complex relationship has, at times, defined Algeria's independence, while also showing its lack of it. Plenty of Algerian talent has risen through French academies before going on to play for Les Bleus, as best exemplified by the .
But now a new generation of French-born Algerians has opted for the Desert Foxes.
Read the rest of this entry
Tabloid writers would have been dismayed by Sven-Goran Eriksson's first press conference in Ivory Coast, for the talk was all football with nothing asked of his .
But that's how he wants to keep it, despite having only seen some of his provisional 30-man on video and despite having not met around a third of them.
"Before we talk tactics, let me first work with the players," the Swede, 62, told the assembled media on Tuesday. "But it will be a system that suits the players - you can't make a revolution in a couple of weeks."
Read the rest of this entry
"The World Cup is coming to Africa - I can't believe it. It just makes me believe that anything is possible."
The words of a female DJ as I listened to the radio in Lesotho just 10 days ago. An attitude which encapsulates the wonder many are feeling across Africa - still incredulous that the planet's biggest sports event is coming here.
To the only continent never to have hosted the Olympics nor the World Cup. Until now that is.
Read the rest of this entry
If there is one fact every South African knows, it is that every World Cup host has always made the second round of the tournament.
However, what they may not know is that Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has never won a World Cup match when not leading his native Brazil.
So something has got to give when the World Cup kicks off on 11 June.
Read the rest of this entry
Born in Wimbledon, my enthusiasm for the global game was already sizeable before the tragic demise of the boys from SW19. Having covered football in over 50 countries, I've been working in the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's African sports section since the early noughties, recently spending three years in Africa to report on the run-up to the continent's first World Cup.
