In a lengthy interview, former goalkeeper of Spanish club Barcelona and the Indomitable Lions, Idriss Carlos Kameni, explains his arrival in the national team.
Idriss Carlos Kameni recounted his early days in club football while mentioning his journey with the Cameroon national team. The former goalkeeper of the Indomitable Lions revealed a poignant anecdote about how Samuel Eto’o facilitated his entry into the squad and influenced his international career.
“I participated in the 1999 World Cup with the juniors but there was no follow-up after that. Even with the U23s, we weren’t called up. I was worried. One day, Samuel Eto’o was passing through Le Havre.
He said to me, ‘Hey kid, I saw you at the Junior World Cup, but what are you doing now?’ He mentioned the Olympic selection and said that they would need to integrate me. That’s how he gave me the coach Akono’s number, whom I called.
But he said, ‘Sorry, I already have my three goalkeepers. They played in the 2000 African Cup and were champions. They were invited to a tournament in Korea, but not everyone could attend, including the goalkeepers. That’s when they called me up, and I had a good tournament.
I remember on the bus, Samuel told the coach, ‘Here is the goalkeeper you need for the Olympics.’ A few months later, they had a gathering in Montpellier, but I was only called up some time later to join them in Manchester, and that’s how I went to the Olympics,” Idriss Carlos Kameni revealed in an interview with 90football.fr.
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