Cameroon at the World Cup: eight appearances, from 1982 to 2022

Every appearance at a glance

1982: a first World Cup without defeat

Having finished ahead of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zaire and finally Morocco, beaten 2-0 in Kenitra, Cameroon became in 1981 the second sub-Saharan African country to qualify for a World Cup, after Zaire in 1974. In Spain, Jean Vincent's side, built around goalkeeper and captain Thomas N'Kono, drew all three games: 0-0 with Peru on 15 June 1982 in A Coruña, 0-0 with Poland, then 1-1 with Italy in Vigo on 23 June. Grégoire M'Bida scored Cameroon's first World Cup goal, a minute after Italy had gone ahead. Cameroon went out unbeaten on goals scored, behind Italy, the eventual world champions.

1990: Argentina, Milla and the quarter-final

On 8 June 1990, in the opening match at San Siro (Milan), Cameroon beat Diego Maradona's Argentina, the holders, 1-0 with a François Omam-Biyik header in the 67th minute, despite finishing with nine men: André Kana-Biyik was sent off in the 61st minute, Benjamin Massing in the 89th. Roger Milla, 38, recalled just before the tournament, came off the bench to score twice against Romania (2-1); despite a heavy defeat by the USSR (0-4), Cameroon topped their group, the first team to do so with a negative goal difference, according to Wikipedia.

In the round of 16 in Naples, Milla scored twice more in extra time against Colombia (2-1). Cameroon became the first African side in a quarter-final. On 1 July, again in Naples, they led England 2-1 after an Emmanuel Kundé penalty (61st minute) and an Eugène Ekéké goal (65th), before conceding two Gary Lineker penalties (83rd and 105th): 2-3 after extra time. Milla, with four goals, won the Bronze Boot, the only individual World Cup award ever won by an African, according to Wikipedia. His corner-flag dances went round the world.

1994-2002: three more World Cups in a row

In 1994 in the United States, Henri Michel's Cameroon were drawn with Brazil, the eventual champions, and Sweden. Beaten 6-1 by Russia on 28 June at Stanford (five of the goals by Oleg Salenko), they suffered their heaviest World Cup defeat; Roger Milla scored Cameroon's goal aged 42 years and 39 days. In 1998 in France, with Claude Le Roy back for the tournament, the team drew twice and lost to Italy; Wikipedia notes that Cameroon were the most-booked side at the tournament, with three red cards. Samuel Eto'o, 17, was the youngest player at the finals.

In 2002, as double African champions, Winfried Schäfer's Cameroon went out narrowly: a draw with Ireland (1-1), a win over Saudi Arabia (1-0, an Eto'o goal), then a defeat by Germany (0-2), the eventual finalists, in a match with 16 cards according to French Wikipedia. It was their last World Cup win until 2022.

2010 and 2014: six straight defeats

In 2010 in South Africa, Paul Le Guen's side, led by new captain Samuel Eto'o, lost all three games and on 19 June, after the defeat by Denmark, became the first team knocked out of the tournament. In 2014 in Brazil, Volker Finke's team also lost all three, including a 0-4 against Croatia marked by Alex Song's red card and Benoît Assou-Ekotto's head-butt on team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo. The tournament had begun with a players' strike over bonuses, when they refused to board the plane to Brazil. With the opening defeat in 2022, Cameroon lost eight World Cup matches in a row, a run ended by the draw with Serbia.

In 2014 Samuel Eto'o, injured in the knee, played only one game, but it was his fourth World Cup; he joined Jacques Songo'o and Rigobert Song, the only other Africans to have done so at that point, according to Wikipedia.

2022: the historic win over Brazil

Cameroon qualified on 29 March 2022 by beating Algeria 2-1 away in the second leg of their play-off, thanks to a Karl Toko Ekambi goal in the 124th minute (going through on away goals). In Qatar, Rigobert Song's side first lost to Switzerland (0-1, the goal scored by Cameroon-born Breel Embolo, who did not celebrate). Goalkeeper André Onana was then dropped for indiscipline. Trailing Serbia 3-1, Cameroon came back to 3-3 thanks to substitute Vincent Aboubakar and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.

On 2 December 2022, in the last group game, captain Vincent Aboubakar headed in a Jérôme Ngom Mbekeli cross in stoppage time: Cameroon beat Brazil 1-0 and became the first African side to beat the Brazilians at a World Cup. Aboubakar was then sent off, for a second booking received for taking his shirt off. The win was not enough: Cameroon finished third in the group, behind Brazil and Switzerland.

Roger Milla's record

On 28 June 1994 against Russia, Roger Milla scored aged 42 years and 39 days: he is still the oldest scorer in World Cup history. That day he also became the oldest player to appear in a finals match; that second record was broken in 2014 by Colombian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón. With five goals (four in 1990, one in 1994), Milla is Cameroon's top World Cup scorer.

Qualifying campaigns and failures

Before 1982 Cameroon failed to qualify for 1970 (knocked out by Nigeria in December 1968), 1974 (beaten by Zaire in a play-off) and 1978 (eliminated by administrative decision against Congo after the return leg in Yaoundé was halted by crowd trouble on 31 October 1976). The next target is the 2030 World Cup, hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal.

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