Cameroon: Why did Lions’ headcoach, Akono, bring back “old players”?

During the press conference in Yaounde yesterday during which he revealed his list, journalists rained questions on him in a bit to bring afloat the reasons why he summoned players whose time with the national team has been considered over.

Like a wounded lion Akono retorted: “So long as players can remain competitive at the higher level, if they make the necessary sacrifices, if the play in their clubs as these men do then they cannot be considered old players. … If for you these men are old and unfit for the challenge, then we shall all judge them on the pitch [September 14].”    

The cream of Cameroon’s football analysts and even some foreign analyst are in support of Akono’s choices. One of them is Henry Manga, analyst with the BBC, who said the selected players are best equipped to take up the challenge because most of them had defeated Cape Verde during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. He also added that most of these players had won the 2000 Olympics medal with Akono and have garnered enough experience to surmount the crushing pressure which the encounter shall unleash September 14 on the Amadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde.