|
|
Cameroon: Roger Milla Inspires Youths in Bertoua
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Post (Buea)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Robert Tumasang
Cameroon's football legend, and Roving Ambassador, Albert Roger Mila, was in Bertoua on Saturday, July 19, to watch the finals of a holiday championship dubbed Festi-Foot Lemma Lecco Guillaume.
The finals that pitted two local teams, Liverpool FC against Barcelona, attracted over 5000 spectators. But the turnout could be largely attributed to the presence of the African football legend.
His arrival alone, alongside the Governor of the East Province, Adolph Lele Lafrique, was in itself an event, heralded by hundreds of horn-blowing motor-bikes that drove on both sides of Mila's vehicle as he drove to the Carriére Stadium in a little quarter in the outskirts of Bertoua.
Mila's presence was not only a curiosity for spectators; it was even more an inspiration to the players."It is a great honour to play in front of a guest of this magnitude," Mvogo, a Barcelona attacker, said before the start of the match.
When the match effectively started, Mvogo became the man of the moment, slotting in two goals for his side through spectacular headers in the first half before his blood brother, Ndjana fired home the winner from a goal mouth tussle late in the second half.
Liverpool responded to the two first goals with a header and a carpet-drive from Yem, but did not have enough time to pull the strings in their favour before the final blast of the whistle.
Mvogo of Barcelona said Mila's presence was doubtlessly a moral booster to them.
"We lost because our players were younger, but we feel honoured to have put up such a marvellous show in front of H.E Roger Mila", one of them said shortly after shaking hands with Cameroon's Roving Ambassador.
Roger Mila, the guest of honour, seemed impressed with what he saw."There is a great potential here," he said. He remarked that the youths need trainers to harness that potential into something more consistent. He further prescribed hard work for the youths who would one day "want to be like Roger Mila". The ace footballer also called on the elite to invest in football as a means of encouraging "the enormous talent I have seen out here".
Festi-Foot Lemma-Lecco Guillaume is an initiative of Guillaume Lema Lecco, alternate Member of Parliament for Lom and Djerem, intended to keep youths busy during holiday.
|
Being in its first edition, many think it was a resounding success, first from the fact that some eight teams were on the starting line, and that the finals did not only bring together the political elite of the East Province, but also got Africa's football legend, Roger Mila, to attend.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
