2027 Basketball World Cup qualifiers: NBA star, Yves Missi, absent from Cameroon 12-man squad.

The New Orleans Pelicans centre, who was named in the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, failed to make the cut in the 12-man squad retained for the qualifiers, scheduled to run from November 27-30.  

The head coach of the Cameroon men’s basketball team, Aboya Alfred, unveiled the list of players to take part in the World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday, November 11. 

Missi was part of the team that played at the 2025 men’s AfroBasket. He was key as the team finished fourth.  

The list is made up of a mix of home and foreign based players. Prominent on the list is Jeremiah Hill of Elan Chalon. He joins Aristide Mouaha of Valtur Brindisi, Rodrigue Andela of South China Athletic Association, and Roland Nyama of the Jobstairs Glessen 46ers. 

The other players featuring on the list include; Jordan Bayehe of Dolomiti Energia Trentino, Ronny Ewanke of Varese Academy, Brice Ayaga of J. A Vichy, Landry Nnoko of Bursaspor Basketbol, Fabien Ateba of Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees and Valentin Lele of BEAC Yaounde. 

The Basketball Lions will face Cape Verde in the first round of group A on November 27 in Rades, Tunisia. This follows the draw of the competition on Tuesday, November 11. 

It will be the third clash between Cameroon and Cape Verde. The Central African nation have won all two previous games by 74-53 and 88-66 respectively. The basketball lions will also face South Sudan and Libya.

Cameroon is hoping to be among the African teams that will secure the five tickets on offer to the 32-team World Championship in 2027. 

The basketball lions have never qualified for the World Cup. This follows futile attempts in 2019 and 2023. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3623 of Thursday November 13, 2025