Football News
12 days before Kenya, Eto'o and Mouelle Kombi reconcile in public
Samuel Eto'o and Narcisse Mouelle Kombi marked a turning point by celebrating together, after months of intense tensions around the Indomitable Lions.
Are we finally witnessing the end of the bitter confrontation between Samuel Eto'o, president of the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot), and the Minister of Sports, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi? Recent events in Yaoundé seem to suggest this. After a long period of distance and disagreements regarding the management of the national team, the two central figures of the Cameroonian sports scene surprised everyone by appearing together during the cup final this Sunday at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium . This same place crystallized tensions a few weeks ago, during the match against Namibia (1-0) on September 7.
Eto'o and Mouelle Kombi walk together, displaying an astonishing complicity
The two emblematic figures of Cameroonian football showed an unexpected degree of complicity, as if their past differences had never existed. In exclusive images broadcast by the national channel CRTV before Sunday's match, we can see Samuel Eto'o, fifth in the 2009 Ballon d'Or, conversing at length with the sixty-year-old minister at the edge of the field. They then walked side by side during the players' review, a symbolic moment. The climax arrived when the former special advisor to the head of state was escorted by Eto'o to the central circle, to the cheers of the public, delighted by this apparent reconciliation.
This scene actually seems to confirm, barring improbable staging, the reconciliation between the two former adversaries. This impression was already reinforced in recent days, since the Ministry of Sports did not hinder the decisions of Fecafoot, whether for the choice of stadium for Cameroon-Kenya (scheduled for October 11, as part of the 3rd day CAN 2025 qualifiers) or for the holding of the preparatory meeting for this event.