CAF Awards: Lions fail to make Team of the Year shortlist.

The Cairo-headquartered structure made the list of shortlists public on Thursday, November 1.

The is filled with a series of expected names. Among them, are those of the Senegalese national team which made the cut as a nominee for the CAF Team of the Year and Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen who got a slot for the most prestigious Player of the Year Award. 

Despite the relative lack of shock in the nominations especially for countries like Morocco where a record seven players are nominated for Player of the Year; the CAF 2023 Awards nominees have had Cameroonians asking questions. 

This is due to the disturbing absence of Cameroonian players, managers and teams in most of the awards’ seven categories. 

Overall, Cameroon as a country, is represented in the awards by three players; Andre Onana, Vincent Aboubakar and Frank Zambo Anguissa. The trio has the nation nominated in two categories; the Player of the Year Award and the Goalkeeper of the Year Award. 

But there are questions and worries about categories like the Interclub Player of the Year, Club of the Year, Young Player of the Year and most especially, the Team of the Year category. 

Lions fail to make Team of the Year cut

Top among the list of absences in the collective category in the 2023 shortlist, is the failure of the senior men’s national team to make the Team of the Year shortlist.

Teams nominated for the category include Cape Verde Island, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania. Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Tanzania conclude the list.

The Lions’ absence in the category is considered by observers to be slightly justifiable and at the same time, to be showing how low the men’s national team struggled in the last 12 months despite making a few strides. 

This is because the year under review has been a hugely challenging one for Cameroon.

Since their 1nil win over Brazil in their last group game at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Lions have had a very difficult run in all competitions leading to the team not matching the likes of The Gambia and Senegal on the continent in terms of consistency.

Since the historic win, Cameroon has won just one of their six matches across all competitions.

During the period, the team suffered defeats at the hands of Namibia, Russia and Senegal. The team played out a 2-2 draw with Mexico.

The Indomitable Lions’ lone victory came against Burundi in Garoua in September in the last round of qualifiers for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. 

The unconvincing performances the last two of which was a 1nil defeat to Senegal in an international friendly last month, had Cameroon losing places on the rankings of the world football governing body, FIFA.

The latest of the rankings released last month had Cameroon losing two places after moving from the 40^th to the 42^nd position on the world ranking. 

The poor form has gotten supporters and the Cameroonian supporters expressing fear about the team’s future in upcoming major events like the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to start in Ivory Coast in barely two months and the start of qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup which kicks off this month. 

Song misses out on Coach of the Year

Another category where Cameroon is missing out on the nominations for the CAF 2023 Awards is the Coach of the Year event where Indomitable Lions Rigobert Song is absent.

Nominees in the category include several of those who made the five-man final shortlist in the 2022 Awards. Among them are Morocco’s Walid Regragui, Senegal’s Aliou Cisse and Tom Saintfiet of The Gambia.

Amir Abdou of Mauritania, Guinea Bissau’s Baciro Cande, Juan Micha Obiang of Equatorial Guinea also make the list alongside Al Ahly head coach, Marcel Koller, Mozambique’s Chiquinho Conde and Abdelhak Benchikha of USM Alger of Algeria.

Song’s absence from the list which also includes Senegal’s Pape Thiaw who led Senegal to the crown of the 2022 African Nations Championship is far from being surprising, according to observers.

This is because of the poor year the Cameroonian trainer had with the Indomitable Lions. 

Like the Lions who struggled before qualifying for the 2023 AFCON which is the highest event used to rate coaches in this year’s CAF Awards, Song had a very stressful year. 

The trainer has won just one of its six matches since Cameroon’s exit victory over Brazil in the 2022 World Cup. 

The poor form led to a section of Cameroonian fans demanding his dismissal as the head coach of the national team. 

This was especially after the Indomitable Lions played a 1all draw with Namibia in Yaounde and lost 2-1 to the Namibians in South Africa days later thereby pushing Cameroon to the walls in its quest for a qualification ticket to the 2023 AFCON.

Onana not in Player of the Year category

Andre Onana’s absence from the list of nominations for the Player of the Year Award has sent tongues wagging.

This is due to the legacy the Cameroonian keeper has written for himself in the last 12 months especially at the club level and slightly at the international level.

Onana had a 2022/2023 season rated by a reasonable amount of football pundits as fantastic and outstanding, especially for an African goalkeeper. 

He won two trophies, the Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup with his club Inter Milan during the 2022/2023 where he also ranked third with Inter in the Serie A.

The former FC Barcelona trainee also reached the final of the 2022/2023 UEFA Champions League where Inter succumbed to a 1nil defeat to English team Manchester City despite a Man-of-the-Match performance from the Cameroonian keeper. 

Onana not in shortlist of Player of the Year

Since the Champions League final which ended a season where the Cameroonian had the highest number of clean sheets with seven in total Onana’s popularity reached an all-new level.

The keeper secured a move to English heavyweights, Manchester United shortly after the Champions League campaign.

These achievements led to the Cameroonian getting tipped to be among the favorites for not only the Goalkeeper of the Year Award alongside Morocco’s Yassine Bounou but also for the most coveted Player of the Year Award. 

This has led to the goalkeeper’s complete omission from the nominees for the Player of the Year giving birth to a lot of debates about the reason behind CAF’s decision to exclude the player.

The debate is mostly fueled by the fact that barely three days before the unveiling of the 2023 nominees, Onana had ranked 23rd in the 2023 Ballon d’Or Awards final classification, leaving him as the fourth-best player in Africa after Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen, Salah Mohammed of Egypt and Morocco’s Yassine Bounou.

Cameroon absent in several other categories

Team Cameroon’s worrying absence in the 2023 CAF Awards is not only felt in the Team of the Year and Coach of the Year categories but the reduced number of representations in the nominations for the Player of the Year Award. 

The vacuum is also felt in the category of the Interclub Player of the Year, the Young Player of the Year and CAF Club of the Year. 

No Cameroonian has been nominated in the Young Player of the Year category which is dedicated to honor the best-performing young player of the year in review.

Nominees in the category include amongst others, Burkinabe pair of Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth and Souleymane Alio from New Stars as well as Ghana’s Ernest Nuamah who starred at the U23 Africa Cup of Nations and now plays for Olympique Marseille in France. 

There has been no controversy about the absence of Cameroonians in the category. This is due to the fact that young Cameroonians failed to bring forth any sort of extraordinary performance during the year under review.

Despite that, there is a slight worry about the complete absence with pundits suggesting it reflects a possible poor youth football development plan in the country.

A similar concern is raised about the CAF Club of the Year where no Cameroonian outfit has been able to make the shortlist. 

Clubs named in the category include the likes of Tanzania’s Simba Sports Club, CR Belouizdad and USM Alger both of Algeria and Al Ahly of Egypt.

South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns, Raja Club Athletic, Wydad Athletic Club and ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast are also nominated in the category.

The lack of a Cameroonian club on the shortlist is blamed on the consistent downward trend Cameroonian clubs have taken in CAF interclub competitions in the last few years. 

The likes of reigning Elite One champions, Coton Sport of Garoua who lost all six matches in the group stages of the 2022/2023 CAF Champions League and survived a preliminary round elimination in the 2023/3024 season, are considered a symbol of the collapse. 

This is after considering the team’s status as a side that played the final of the same Champions League competition during the 2008/2009 season.

The downward trend is also blamed for the absence of Cameroonians in the Interclub Player of the Year category dominated by players from North and Southern African countries, both regions producing the best clubs on the continent at the moment.