Cameroon: Onana's return raises questions. Excluded from the 2022 World Cup, André Onana is back in the Cameroon squad for the final 6th and last day of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.However, this comeback by the Manchester United goalkeeper is being scrutinized by fans and former Indomitable Lions alike.
André Onana is back in the Indomitable Lions' den.The Manchester United goalkeeper even joined Cameroon's training camp on Monday September 4.Suspended for "disciplinary reasons" during the 2022 World Cup by the Cameroon Football Federation, the hatchet seems to have been buried. Cameroon "needs" André Onana, but the relationship between Song and him is "still a bit cold". "I'm not too sure they're friends," thinks Patrick Suffo in BBC World's Sport Today.
"I'm curious to see what happens once they start working together again. The player came out and denied it was a disciplinary (problem). So a lot of people in Cameroon understood that it might be about other problems," adds the former Indomitable Lion. "Onana has said he won't play for the national team as long as these guys are in charge. I think he's coming to play for Cameroon, not for the manager (Rigobert Song) or anyone else," Suffo says.
"I'm not sure Song and Onana are friends".
Onana has been omnipresent in United's first four Premier League games of the season. The 27-year-old said he accepted the call-up with "unshakeable certainty" and praised the efforts of the Cameroonian government in working towards his comeback. Onana was quick to point out, however, that "his ordeal was marked by injustice and manipulation". "Rigobert was captain for over a decade, so he has experience of dealing with players," points out Suffo, a former Sheffield United and Coventry City striker. "If this needs to be resolved, he's the best person to handle it. He has what it takes to put Onana in the right frame of mind," continues Suffo. And concludes."He came back because he was ready to put some of these problems behind him and concentrate solely on soccer."
