Douala, special envoy
Their career ” ? They watch her under crampons. Worn, torn, abused, without laces, whatever the appearance: at the Oryx Douala, it’s not the shoe that makes the footballer. On this rocky ground, to break an ankle, twenty young people run behind a ball and a dream: “go pro” and “join the selection”, they say. Like Captain Vincent Aboubakar, the child of Garoua (city in northern Cameroon) who carried the Indomitable Lions to victory in the crazy “little final” of the African Cup of Nations (CAN), Saturday February 5, in Yaoundé, against the attractive Stallions of Burkina Faso (3-3; 3-5 on penalties).
“Yes, I want to be pro”, repeats Alexandre Bardelli. At home, on the continent, in Europe, in Asia. Anywhere. “It is possible by sacrificing myselfassures this 21-year-old attacking midfielder, tattooed from the legs to the arms. Until I reach my goal, I will continue to train. I love football. » It is this ” love and this obsession with success that drives this shy boy – and his partners – to kick the ball two or three times a day on sandy ground surrounded by the corpses of countless plastic bottles. “The conditions are not good”he said modestly. “They are terrible”acknowledges President André Makoube Etame. “It’s true, but it forges us, it works the mind. We know what the difficulty isloose with a smile Daniel Priso, 22, far from complaining. Tomorrow, if we find ourselves on a grass lawn abroad, it will be only happiness for us. » For the moment, happiness is waiting…
Dust, glorious past and nostalgia
No office. No stadium. Correct land lent by a former manager of the team, located in the Bell district, where this collective was born, almost a hundred years ago. “We wander”joked the president. Today, nothing remains of the Oryx, the legendary club of the economic capital of the country, except dust, a glorious past and infinite nostalgia. That of a big name in Cameroonian football – alongside Tonnerre or Canon Yaoundé, Conton Sport Garoua or Union Douala – who wrote his legend sixty years ago. The Oryx is five national titles (1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967); three Cameroon Cups (1963, 1968, 1970), a triumph in the first edition of the African Champions League, in 1965. And a hero who allowed all these victories: Samuel Mbappé Léppé.
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