ANAFOOT: 35 Orange Cameroun-sponsored trainees drafted by amateur clubs.

The players and the clubs they will be representing during the 2024/2025 season were presented to the public, during a ceremony organised in Yaounde on Thursday August 29.

The footballers, whose ages range between16 and 18, will be representing a total of 12 clubs during the upcoming season. They were picked by the clubs during the 2024 edition of the ANAFOOT Regional Talents Tournament. It was organised in Yaounde.

The competition, which ran from August 20 to 24, was organised at the Presidential Guard Complex in Melen, Yaounde VI.

Speaking during the ANAFOOT Draft 2024 event, the Director General of the football training academy, Carl Enow Ngachu, expressed delight to see their trainees being sought after by clubs in the country.

“Today, we are sending out 35 trainees out of a sample of 107 solicited by clubs for the 2024/2024 season. They will henceforth animate our local championships and join 162 others in 79 clubs in the domestic league and abroad. We expressed our sincere gratitude to our partner, Orange Cameroun, for its multi-form support in the development of local football,” Enow Ngachu said.

The ANAFOOT Director General mentioned that the academy was created by the Head of State, with the objective to train quantitative and qualitative high-level footballers and to contribute to professionalise the Cameroon football sector.

“In this light, several young male and female talents are being detected and trained at regional levels. They participate in national tournaments. The ANAFOOT-trained footballers are regularly called up in national selections and some have even won trophies,” Enow Ngachu added.

He said in the 2023 La Francophonie Games, five of ANAFOOT trainees competed with the men’s U20 national team. He added that ANAFOOT trainees also represented the country at the 2023 Women’s Military World Cup and the 2024 U20 Women’s World Cup underway in Colombia.

Addressing the academy’s young footballers who will hence play professional football, Enow Ngachu, said: “…Dear draftees, your determination, passion and talent have brought you this far. We are proud of you. We’re offering you this opportunity because we believe in your potential to have a positive impact in the life of the clubs that you will henceforth represent. At the level of ANAFOOT, we valorise team spirit, mutual respect, respect of institutions and the work environment, respect for Cameroon and its flag which you are called upon to serve, never forget that”.

He added that: “We encourage healthy competition and the constant willingness to ameliorate. You are 35 today, but I admit that hundreds of you seduced club promoters during the regional talents tournament. We are wishing you drafted today and others fruitful careers,”

Enter representative of Orange DG

In his remarks during the event, the representative of the Director General of Orange Cameroun, Poumi Venant, saluted the collaboration between the telecommunications company and ANAFOOT since 2021. 

“With the creation of ANAFOOT some years back, Orange thought that the time had come for to make its own contribution at the level of training. It is for this reason that in 2021, we started a collaboration with ANAFOOT that is doing some formidable work for some years now in the detection and training of young footballers in the different Regions. It is an honour for Orange Cameroun,” Poumi said.

He said Orange Cameroun as a responsible and citizen-oriented company has as principal mission, “valorising these talents and the youth trained in the 10 Regions of our country by ANAFOOT, represent the future of Cameroon football”.

The Orange Cameroun official mentioned other contributions of the company in football development like “the sponsoring of CAF, the Indomitable Lions for the last 24 years and different holiday championship across the country. In all these engagements, ANAFOOT touches our heart the most”.

He said Orange Cameroun was amazed by the quality of work done by the ANAFOOT Director General and his team.

“The draft of today in particular is a moment to celebrate the latest batch of trainees, it is also the moment to salute excellence and the contribution of all football actors so that our youth should shine in sports and football in particular across the globe,” he concluded.

Players drafted

Of the 35 players drafted from ANAFOOT, 12 of them will play for Elite One clubs. PWD Social Club of Bamenda, Gazelle FA of Garoua and Stade Renard of Melong drafted three players each while Dynamo of Douala got two ANAFOOT trainees. 

Newly promoted Aigle of Moungo drafted one player from the national football academy.

Among the three players picked by Gazelle FA are the best player of the 2024 ANAFOOT Talents Tournament, Arafat Moussa, from the Far North Pole and Nouridine Ousman from the East Region Pole who was best goalkeeper of the same competition.

Eight players were drafted by Elite Two clubs and will play for Apejes of Mfou, Eding of Lekie, Fovu of Baham and FAP of Yaounde.

The amateur clubs that drafted ANAFOOT trainees are Dja Sports Academy of Meyomessala, from the South Region, Fako United playing in the South West regional league and Abakwa Girls competing in the North West women’s regional football league.

Club representatives, players speak 

Officials of the various clubs that scouted and picked ANAFOOT to join their teams have saluted the work done by the academy.

Coach David Pagou, who won the Elite One championship and Cup of Cameroon with PWD Bamenda, sat in for the club president, Pascal Abunde during the event.

The tactician coached State Renard last season and is set to return to head the technical bench of the Abakwa Boys for the upcoming season.

He sat through the talents tournament organised by ANAFOOT in Yaounde and picked three players; Gabriel Baba Brunel, Mongo Yann and Christian Bouba to play for the blue and white next season.

Speaking during the event, he said: “Wherever a talent is found, it has to be detected and I think ANAFOOT is playing that role well. I want to say kudos to the Director General of ANAFOOT and educators because the most difficult stage is detection, getting these talents who will tomorrow make not only our clubs proud but also our national selections".

Turning to the players, he told them: “Elite One isn’t any real big thing. We have watched you play; you are young, have the talent, you just need to continue working hard and believing in your dream”.

Fossi Browndon, one of the young footballers drafted from the Centre Region Pole by Stade Renard of Melong, admitted that the quality of training they have had at ANAFOOT is top notch.

“I can say ANAFOOT is the best academy, they have all the qualities; good coaches, training equipment and a good vision. Going forward, I want to work hard, learn from my coaches and build a good career,” Fossi told reporters. 

Most of the players selected by the clubs spent between five and six years at the academy.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3217 of Monday September 02, 2024