With December 21 fast approaching to mark the start of Africa’s most prestigious football tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco, one of the continent’s football giants, Cameroon, is facing a major power struggle after the Indomitable Lions named two different squads for the competition.
The standoff is between the country’s football federation and the national team coach, with neither side willing to back down as the tournament draws closer.
The dispute centres on Samuel Eto’o, the president of the Cameroonian Football Federation, and Marc Brys, the Belgian national team manager. Eto’o has made it clear that he wants Brys out of the job, but Brys has refused to step aside. Although Eto’o told him his time in charge was over, Brys has not been officially dismissed and is still under contract with the Ministry of Sport until September 2026. That legal protection allowed him to continue presenting himself as Cameroon’s legitimate head coach.
With AFCON just days away and no resolution in sight, the football federation moved ahead without Brys. On December 1, FECAFOOT held an emergency committee meeting and announced its own 28-man squad for the tournament. In the same announcement, Eto’o replaced Brys with David Pagou as head coach for AFCON and unveiled an entirely new technical team. Pagou was later listed as Cameroon’s coach on FIFA’s website and even addressed the media to explain the squad and the team’s ambitions, reinforcing the federation’s position.
However, the squad immediately caused controversy because several senior players were missing. André Onana, Eric Choupo-Moting and long-time captain Vincent Aboubakar were all left out. The omission of Aboubakar in particular sparked claims that Eto’o wanted him excluded to prevent him from breaking his record as Cameroon’s all-time top scorer. Aboubakar, now 33, is only 12 goals away from surpassing Eto’o and could realistically do so during AFCON.
The situation escalated further when Brys responded by releasing his own Cameroon squad. Refusing to accept that he had been sacked, he reinstated Onana, Choupo-Moting and Aboubakar, directly challenging the federation’s authority. Brys argued that key leaders had been dropped from the original list because Eto’o himself had influenced the selection.
In the end, Cameroon named two AFCON squads because two different authorities claimed control over the national team. With Eto’o acting through the football federation and Brys insisting he was still the rightful coach under his government contract, both sides issued their own lists, leaving the country in unprecedented confusion on the eve of Africa’s biggest football tournament.
