Today is the day to talk about Cameroon, a country that was colonized by Germany, England, and France.
CAMEROON
- Name written in its native language: Cameroun
- Language: French
- Capital city: Yaoundé
- Currency: Central African CFA franc (BRL 0.0076 – currency exchange on 11/04/2022)
- Main player: André Onana
- Typical food: Ndole
Curiosities
The name Cameroon was due to the Portuguese navigator Fernando do Pó who, in 1472, named Wouri River with the name of Cameroon River after finding a huge amount of shrimps in the river.
The country conquered its independence only in 1960 after being a colony of France and England.
The biggest frog in the world, goliath frog, lives in Cameroon. This amphibian can measure up to 40 cm and weigh 3 kg, and is able to build its own lagoon by using heavy stones.
Cameroon economy is based on agriculture, and the main economic activities are cocoa, coffee, and cotton exportation.
Although Cameroon has two official languages, French and English, the country has approximately 280 endemic languages. Depending on the displacement, a Cameroonian uses up to 6 different languages on the same day. However, the translation of documents is made into the official languages, English and French.
The Cameroonian cuisine uses many fish (and, of course, shrimp), and some dishes are made with crocodile and hedgehog meat. However, ndole is prepared using spinach leaves (ndole), peanuts, fried banana, and fish or shrimp. Spinach leaves are mixed with peanuts, oil, garlic, bell pepper, and onion, until they form a homogeneous mixture, and then shrimp and fried banana are added.
The Indomitable Lions, the nickname for Cameroon team, has a very interesting history. For a long time, the best player in the country history was Roger Milla, who debuted in the World Cup in 1982, but did not draw attention, and Cameroon was eliminated in the first round. In 1990, after 8 years without playing the World Cup, Milla and the Indomitable Lions returned to the tournament. Milla, at that time, was already 38 years old, and although he was a two-time champion in the Africa Cup of nations, the Cameroon coach and players thought that Milla’s time had already elapsed. Roger Milla had already retired from professional soccer, playing a semi-amateur league and was preparing to study and become a coach. However, the clamor of the crowd made the president to issue a decree calling Roger Milla for 1990 World Cup. Just the fact that Cameroon advanced to the second round was a surprise, and the Cameroonian team drew even more attention after beating Colombia in the round of 16. With Milla’s calling and thanks to his gala performance, Cameroon team came to the historical match against England in the quarterfinals, where all the people following the World Cup expected a walkover by the English team; however the Cameroonian team lived up to the nickname and led the match to the extra time after a tie during the regular time. England ended up winning the match 3×2, but Cameroon performance in 1990 World Cup forced FIFA to open another spot for African teams. Roger Milla ended the tournament with 4 goals in 5 matches, including the historical goal against Colombia.
Milla’s history, however, did not end in 1990 World Cup. In 1994, he played again in the World Cup in Cameroon team at the age of 42 and became the oldest player to score a goal in World Cups. This goal was scored in the match between Russia and Cameroon, won by Russia team 6×1, and Milla’s record lasts until today, as well as his history.
Nowadays, the goalkeeper André Onana is considered the greatest name of Cameroon team. The Inter Milan goalkeeper team will have the hard task of trying to stop the Brazilian attack with Neymar, Vinicius Junior, and others, in addition to confronting good players from Sweden and Serbia. Will Cameroon team be able to repeat the historical deed by Roger Milla in Qatar?
This was Eko’s in the World Cup for Cameroon. If you liked it, follow our social media (Instagram: @ekostraducoes / LinkedIn: ekostraducoes) and come back tomorrow, because we are going to talk about Portugal.