The appointment of Rigobert Song as coach of the Cameroonian national team has not been unanimously welcomed by the sports community in Cameroon. Many have questioned Song's ability to produce results and have sighted his previous spells with the Junior categories to question his appointment.
It would be premature to say that Rigobert Song is the "swallow" that will bring spring to the Cameroon national football team. If the new coach of the Indomitable Lions can boast of having the right job profile and a staff deemed effective, he also knows that he is expected to face the wall. The successor of Antonio Conceiçao is condemned to validate the ticket for the World Cup 2022. A great appointment for which the Indomitable Lions are greatly expected since a second consecutive absence (after Russia 2018), would be unforgivable. Can Rigobert Song make the dream possible after the disillusionment at the gates of Vladimir Putin's country? The question is at the centre of the debate in Cameroon.
Competence
The arrival of Rigobert Song on the bench of the Indomitable Lions is not unanimous in his country. Within the opinion and the local sports press, two camps oppose the choice of the president of the Federation. It seems that not everyone shares the project of Samuel Eto'o, to nationalize the post of coach. Because above all, it should be about competence. It is a mistake to promote the nationalisation of the post of coach at the expense of competence," says Alain Ikoul, a journalist at CFOOT. And even if it is absolutely necessary that the coach is Cameroonian, I am naive enough to think that Rigobert Song is not the most deserving. This conclusion is justified by the Cameroonian technician's track record as a coach.
Rigobert Song has already coached two national teams of his country. First the local team, the Intermediate Lions, which he led to the African Nations Championship (Chan) 2018 in Morocco. And finally the Lions U23, which he led to the AFCON U23 of 2019 in Egypt. Two competitions that ended with an elimination of Cameroon in the first round. "During these two tournaments, Rigobert Song has shown shortcomings in particular in terms of his system of play and choice of players," notes Marc Chouamo, the head of the sports department of the private television channel Canal 2 International. "Song's experience with the two lower teams does not predispose him to the post of coach of the senior Lions. He is not ready," said Alain Ikoul.
Bad timing?
The other factor that bothers some is the timing. Rigobert Song has only two weeks to prepare the double confrontation of March (25 and 29), against Algeria. "It is good that the post of coach is assigned to a Cameroonian, but the time that separates us from the playoffs of the World Cup 2022 is not suitable for such a change," says Christian Tchapmi, editor of the private daily Le Messager. Thierry Ndoh, a journalist on duty at Sky One Radio, does not share this opinion. "There is never a good or bad timing to appoint a coach; it is the objectives that are assigned to him and the means to achieve them that are important," he explains. The journalist also invokes history to support the act of the president of Fecafoot.
This is not the first time that such an appointment happens for such an important deadline," he said. It was already the case in 1993 with the Cameroonian Léornard Nséké, appointed for a crucial match in view of the 1994 World Cup. In 1997, a group of local coaches including Jean Manga Onguéné, Jean Paul Akono, Jean-Pierre Sadi and Michel Kaham played for the 1998 World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe. In both cases, Cameroon qualified. So the timing is not a problem. On the contrary, Samuel Eto'o did well to make the change, he says. "Moreover, it can bring a kind of added value, because anyone who knows Rigobert Song knows the fighting spirit he brought to our team. It can be a good catalyst," he concluded.
