Women’s basketball: Challenges of Cameroonian Ahmed Mbombo Njoya at the head of Olympiacos

The work that awaits Ahmed Mbombo Njoya at the head of Olympiacos SFP Women is up to the reputation of the Greek club. After a 2025-2026 season marked by sports disillusions, both on the national and European scene, the Cameroonian technician arrives in an environment under pressure, where only the recovery seems acceptable. Accustomed to dominating Greek women’s basketball for a decade, Olympiacos saw its status falter in a few months, between early elimination in Europe, loss of the national title and abandonment of the Greek Cup.

A blank season
On the continental stage, the season of the club of Piraeus quickly turned into a nightmare. First engaged in the EuroLeague Women, Olympiacos has never managed to compete with the great European powers. Eliminated in the first round, the Greek club suffered a heavy correction against Fenerbahçe Opet (47-99), symbol of the gap that now separates the Turkish and Spanish players from the Hellenic teams. Then transferred to EuroCup Women, Olympiacos hoped to save their European campaign. But the adventure came to an end in the last 16, on 22 January 2026, after being eliminated by the Spanish side of Estudiantes F. A premature exit that confirmed the club’s decline on the continental board.

The difficulties have continued on the national scene. Despite being the reigning Greek champion, Olympiacos finished only third in the Women’s A1 League regular season. In the Final Four to designate the champion, the club of Piraeus was eliminated in the semi-finals by Panathinaikos Women after a spectacular match lost 93-103 after extra time. The players had won the first three quarters (22-20, 24-23, 23-21), before collapsing in the last act and then in overtime (8-18). The title finally went to Athinaikos, crowned champion of Greece for the fifth time in its history.

As a symbol of this failed season, Olympiacos has also abandoned the Greek Cup, a trophy won six times including the 2024-2025 season, in favor of Athinaikos who achieved the double by crushing Proteas Voulas 94-56 in the final. This loss of national supremacy was like a shock to an historically dominant club. Olympiacos remains the second most successful club in Greek women’s basketball with nine championships won (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025), six Greek Cups and one Super Cup. But after having ruled almost without sharing for several years, the club now sees the emergence of a more structured and more ambitious competition.

The European challenge
It is in this delicate context that Ahmed Mbombo Njoya arrives. Born in December 1973, son of the late Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, King of the Bamoun people in the western region of the country, the Cameroonian technician has an atypical background between Africa, France and the Arab world. Having played for Wydad Casablanca, then Frontignan, La Croix d'Argent and Lattes Montpellier as coach, he gradually established himself as one of the most respected African technicians in women’s basketball. His notoriety really exploded during the 2021 women’s AfroBasket in Yaoundé, when he led the Indomitable Lionnes to a historic bronze medal, notably with a major victory against Senegal, which Cameroon had not beaten for several decades.

But beyond the symbol, Olympiacos expects above all a builder capable of putting the club back on top. Ahmed Mbombo Njoya will have to quickly rebuild a competitive team in an environment where the pressure of results is permanent. The challenge is multiple: to revive a team in loss of confidence, reduce the gap with the large European engines, while resisting the rise of Greek clubs like Panathinaikos or Athinaikos. He will also have to deal with an increasingly complex economic context in European women’s basketball, where Turkish clubs have far superior financial means to attract the best players from the continent and the WNBA.

For the Cameroonian technician, this appointment nevertheless represents an exceptional opportunity. By taking the helm of a club as prestigious as Olympiacos, Ahmed Mbombo Njoya becomes one of the few African coaches to lead a leading European institution in women’s basketball. But this promotion is accompanied by a clear requirement: to quickly reconnect with the titles and give back to the club of Piraeus a European credibility. Because at Olympiacos, a third place in the national rankings and an elimination in the last 16 of the EuroCup are not just a mere underperformance. They are experienced as a real regression.