By Fomekong Yonty Charity – Guest Writer, Sports24.cm & Jemea Teke Ndumbe, Sports Writer-Sports24cm
The head coach of Cameroon’s Indomitable lions has to publish a pre-selected list of 26 home-base lions ahead of Cameroon’s friendly against Jamaica next month.
This game will surely be a testing ground to detect local players who have the potential to be selected for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar next month.
The list consists of three goalkeepers, eight defenders, eight midfielders, and seven forwards.
Ballon D’or award winner, Marou Souiabou, young player of the year Patience Wassu and Bertrand Mani make the list, while Youssoufa Houzaifi, Che Malong, Etta Bawack and Yves Mokoko are some of the top defenders in the list.
Valentine Bao Bato, Djawal Kaiba, Felix Oukine, and Mbah Louis make the list from the midfield perspective.
Complete list
It should be noted that should local players succeed in making the final list, their clubs will benefit from a FIFA bonus to clubs whose players will make it to the World Cup.
Clubs throughout the globe were invited by FIFA on Tuesday to apply for money from a fund of $209 million set aside for teams that release players for this year’s world cup in Qatar. This means clubs will get paid a daily rate – which estimates at about $10,000 – for as long as 832 players selected for the 32 rosters are on National team duty ahead of and during the tournament.
The preparation period starts on November 14 and the tournament ends on December 18, 2022.
In 2015, FIFA and the European Club Association agreed to reward clubs that help develop World Cup players – and each player’s share of the fund is distributed among the clubs the player played for in the past two years.
According to FIFA, more than 400 clubs playing in 63 different members’ Associations were paid shares from the $209 million fund allocated from the 2018 World Cup Commercial Revenues.
The “Club Benefits Program” was created in 2008 in a deal for FIFA to recognise the newly launched ECA as a more democratic representative of the clubs’ interests.
Cameroon play Jamaica on November 9, 2022.
