Somewhere in the 1990s,
Cameroon played the world cup football. I remember that a lot of Dutch people
were really supporting Cameroon. Their players were not paid as much as ours,
they didn’t play in European competitions. Most of them were working as
mechanics or carpenters and just played football because they liked it.
Now, the world cup is taking
place again. Cameroon is participating. But instead of carpenters and
mechanics, the players are professionals now. They left Cameroon a day late
because they were fighting their national football association about salaries.
Most famous player is of course Eto’o (who plays for Chelsea).
Cameroonians love football and
the expectations for the national team were very high. Everyone was aware that
their group is very difficult (Brazil, Mexico and Croatia) but still. People
were hoping for some nice matches. The first match was still fine; they lost
but only 1-0. But the second match was a disaster. They got beaten by Croatia
with 4-0. Most painful however was the way this happened. I didn’t watch the
match myself, but I heard so many stories about it. How they started fighting
amongst themselves, how they were misbehaving.
Almost everyone I talk to is
so disappointed. Not only about the loss. More about the fact that Cameroon had
not scored any goal in five world cup matches. And especially about the behaviour
of their players. On Facebook a picture is circulating that asks Boko Haram to
bring back the kidnapped girls and take 23 heavily overpaid and misbehaving
players instead.
People are ashamed and say;
people all over the world see these matches. What would they think about
Cameroon now? Many people don’t know anything about Cameroon and now they see
this. Now the entire world thinks that this is how Cameroon is, that we are all
idiots who fight amongst themselves.
So, just to make it clear;
there are apparently some crazy overpaid football profs in the country. But, no, not every Cameroonian is
like this! Most Cameroonians I met so far are friendly, nice, sweet and
helpful. Most Cameroonians I met so far are working hard to make a living for
their families and send their children to school. And most Cameroonians I met
so far feel bad about the way their players are behaving. So, no, these
overpaid players you see on TV are not representative for Cameroon!
