AFCON 2025 - Cameroon: David Pagou the unexpected pick to lead the Lions

He wasn’t supposed to be there if you ask many. Backtrack to the last time FECAFOOT sent a list of coaches prior to Marc Brys, there was no Cameroonian name that featured. And yet, a few days before the start of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, it is indeed the name of David Pagou that appears on the documents sent to the CAF as coach of Cameroon.

A discreet technician, trained in the shadow of the local championship, propelled to lead the Indomitable Lions in conditions that speak volumes about the state of governance of Cameroonian football. Because behind this precipitated nomination hides a conflict of power that was never completely settled between the Fécafoot of Samuel Eto'o and the Ministry of Sports. Two legitimacies, one bench.

Born on January 13, 1969 in Buea in the southwest of Cameroon, David Pagou is not a stranger to football circles. It was built far from the spotlight, on the demanding terrain of the Elite One. His most accomplished work remains at PWD Bamenda, which he leads to the title of champions of Cameroon in 2020, then to winning the Cameroon Cup in 2021. Two trophies that permanently establish his reputation as a methodical technician, obsessed with defensive balance, collective discipline and the promotion of young local talents. Having spent time at the Renaissance de Ngoumou, Stade Renard de Melong, and more recently Coton Sport, Pagou embodies a school of Cameroonian football based on the rigor and hierarchy of the locker room, contrary to the star-system.

Before his lightning promotion, Pagou was already in the organizational chart. Assistant to Marc Brys, regular member of the national technical staff, he also participated in the A-Lions course at CHAN 2020, eliminated in the quarter-finals in Yaoundé. A profile appreciated for its substantive work, particularly in the detection and monitoring of the local championship. It is precisely this institutional loyalty that is the subject of debate today. Because his appointment in December 2025, approved by the Fécafoot and validated by FIFA, comes in a context of open arm wrestling between Samuel Eto'o and Marc Brys, whose authority has been methodically undermined by the federation.

Settling of scores?
The first list of Pagou for AFCON 2025 rather than galvanizing the team ahead of the competition, instead watered the debate. André Onana, Vincent Aboubakar, Choupo-Moting, Moumi Ngamaleu, Michaël Ngadeu, Martin Hongla: all absent. Historical executives, who all played a role in qualifying the team, but also players who had publicly supported Marc Brys in his conflict with the Fecafoot. Officially, Pagou assumes a sports choice, claiming a generational break, a requirement for discipline and a meritocracy based on the form of the moment. But in this light, doubt persists, contradictions spreads. Is this list really based on merit? Or the indirect expression of a settling of scores orchestrated from the headquarters of Fécafoot in Tsinga? 

By relying on a coach with an unobtrusive profile, not inclined to media confrontation, didn’t Samuel Eto'o offer himself an ideal lever to regain control over a selection that was thriving in his absence? On the eve of an AFCON, team captain Vincent Aboubakar, Andre Onana, arguable the best inform African keeper in the world among others sidelined to bring in players with no prior national call ups and worse of all, a player from Brazil's sixth tier. Can the Lions really roar in Morocco? only time will tell.