Technical Bench, in Search Of Stability

The news that the coach of the national team has been sacked is no longer news to many football lovers in Cameroon. Cameroonians can remember vividly the frequent changing of officials of the  by the authorities. The Indomitable Lions have had four coaches between 2014 and 2019. In 2013 Volke Finke took over from Jean Paul Akono as coach of the Indomitable Lions after a series of changes at the helm of the team. Volka Finke took the Indomitable Lions to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He was coach of the national team till 2015 when he was replaced by Alexander Belinga as interim coach. Hugo Broos then took over in February 2016 and took the Lions to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and the 2018 Confederations Cup in Russia. Following the failure of the Lions to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Hugo Broos was relieved of his duty.

Then came Clarence Seedorf as coach and Patrick Kluivert as assistant coach in August 2018. Clarence Seedorf was sacked after the disappointing performance of the Indomitable Lions at the Africa Cup of Nations. Seedorf’s assistant, the former Netherlands striker and Patrick Kluivert, have also been axed after the defending champions were booted out of the competition in the last 16, losing 3-2 to Nigeria. The fact that the technical bench is being tampered with regularly is detrimental to the performance of the team in major international competitions. In the last two decades only Coach Winfried Shaffer spent three years (2001-2004) with the national team. During his reign Cameroon won the 2002 AFCON trophy. He equally took Cameroon to the 2002 World Cup, the final of the Confederations Cup in 2003 in France and the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia in 2004.