Maturing The Vision

November FIFA Window is on and Cameroon’s senior national football team, the Indomitable Lions, will be on duty in two crucial qualifi­ cation encounters for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations. They welcome Namibia at the Japoma Sports Complex in Douala this No­ vember 12, 2026 and play away in Namibia four days thereafter for the third and fourth days of the qualifying round. The stakes of the two outings are high as qualification can almost be secured, depending on the outcomes. The team now leads group G with four points. As supporters look forward to the encounters, another area of concern will certainly be on who will be used where and what game plan will be adopted and more, for what re­ sults. The curiosity of the supporters stems from the unpredictable and ever-changing call-ups of the technical bench. For, by what the coach says is as an inclusive policy for all respected and respectable talents, new players are enlisted at each gathering and new tactics and men used. Visibly, this is making the national team inclusive for all sons of the Fatherland who have the ability and desire to contribute to its success. Inas­ much as the strategy has the merits of giving opportunities for all to show their worth and broaden the choices for all com­ partments of the squad, sceptics however feel the trail is taking too long. They hold that a technical bench worth the name comes with a vision and selects players who can fit into a well-outlined play policy so as to materialise the dream. The national team at moment appears still far from this. Many keen observers who watched the team at the last Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco thought the technical bench already had a skeleton of a team and could simply work on reinforcing the different posts and building cohesion. But different players keep coming and being tried at various levels. The number of new faces at each gathering and the team’s persistently dangling show are telling of unending attempts in finding a squad that matches the country’s name. Disturbing indeed, looking at the time already spent and the tasks ahead. While the coaching staff hold that the unen­ ding trial is an opportunity to have a broader view of all the potentials at each compartment so as to have a competitive team for ...