Cameroon president Paul Biya must draw lessons from the ongoing 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) where the courage to renew the technical staff and players and discard hitherto indispensable key players is yielding fruits.
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon have so far maintained a flawless record at the 2025 AFCON in Morocco, advancing to the quarterfinals without a defeat. This is a feat that seemed farfetched when the new head coach, David Pagou unveiled his squad on December 1, 2025 – the same day he and his team were appointed by the president of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT).
The appointment of Pagou and co by the FECAFOOT president Samuel Eto’o Fils only two days after he was reelected for a second term at the helm of the “Desperate Football House”, marked the end of months of turmoil between the FA and the Ministry of Sports, which tainted the once glamorous football image of the country on and off the turf.
Pagou replaced Belgian Marc Brys whose appointment in April 2024 by the Sports Minister fueled the long-standing animosity between the Ministry and the FA. Empowered by the FA and tasked to lead the national team to glory at the 2025 tournament, Pagou’s squad list left out former captain and regular goal scorer, Vincent Aboubakar and other seniors regulars including goalkeeper Andre Onana, veteran striker Eric Maxime Choupo-Moting, midfielder Zambo Anguissa and defender Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui.
No official reason was given for the dramatic exclusions but grapevine has it that this was done on the orders of the FA president to punish them for publicly rebuking him last year in a statement read by team captain Aboubakar.
The new technical staff chose young and rising stars like Christian Kofane and Karl Etta Eyong. When defender Jean-Charles Castelletto declined his call up due to injury, the new coach easily replaced him with Che Malone, centre-back playing with USM Alger in the Algerian Ligue 1.
Pagou who has been a respected coach in Cameroon’s domestic league for years had little time to familiarize with his largely freshman squad before their first training around December 16, 2025 in Casablanca, Morocco.
It should be noted, however, that the team was not entirely new to him as he was officially one of the assistants of the former head coach, the Belgian Marc Brys under a compromise between the FA and the Sports ministry to accommodate conflictual rival technical staff appointed by the two feuding institutions.
Against all the odds, this man, who was once on the bench of PWD of Bamenda has led the Indomitable Lions to the quarterfinals of this AFCON and they are scheduled to face hosts, Morocco on Friday, January 9, 2026.
Lessons
The message here is clear: change is good. The change started with the technical staff, and then the players. And the results are there for all to see.
In Cameroon president Paul Biya’s New Year message, he acknowledged that “sustained efforts still need to be made, without delay”, to significantly improve the living conditions of Cameroonians, pledging “Such will be the priority for the government that I will form in the coming days”.
This is unarguably the first time Biya has announced a government before it is appointed and I think the Head of State should consider the example of the changes within the national football team as he finalizes the government.
As discarding deadwood from the Indomitable Lions has given room for fresh blood and a new burst of zest in the team, Biya too has to count the years he has covered and assess his performance to remark the impact of diminishing returns in his output. He, holding an elective office; unlike those holding office by appointment, does not diminish the necessity for him to draw lessons from the Indomitable at AFCON.
He can fix the mess his long-serving and unproductive ministers have caused by bringing in new blood like the Indomitable Lions squad representing the country at the ongoing AFCON.
He promised during the oath taking ceremony at the National Assembly on November 6, 2025 that youth and women will be at the centre of this current mandate, it is time he matches words with action.
As the five-time AFCON champions are hoping to lift this trophy for a sixth after their fifth in Gabon in 2017, the nation looks united behind them. These days, obviously thanks to the Indomitable Lions’ winning streak, there is an unusual lull in verbal hostilities between supporters of Cameroon’s top football protagonists, especially the FA versus the Sports ministry and between certain individual “warlords” like the FA president Samuel Eto’o and goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Should Biya also “drain the swamp” by appointing a fresh new team that will live up to the expectations of Cameroonians, tensions will likely tone down, socio-political hostilities may abate, unity will effortlessly reign and Cameroon could regain its once widely chanted status of an “island of peace and stability” in an otherwise turbulent central African subregion.
