“It is a legend of Cameroonian football, African who died, a symbol of another time, from that time when the Canon of Yaoundé, his club, flying over local, continental football, piled up tens of thousands of fans in his overheated bowl of the Amadou-Ahidjo stadium”writes Hervé Penot, the journalist Grand Specialist in African Football of The teamin this Saturday edition.
Cameroonian football cries one of his most illustrious champions, Emmanuel Kundé, who died Friday at the age of 68. Player for Canon Yaoundé from 1977 to 1987, this defensive midfielder was one of the tauliers of the great Cameroon team of Joseph-Antoine Bell and Roger Milla, winner of the African Cup of Nations in 1984 and 1988, of the Afroasiatic Cup in 1985 (with Claude Le Roy in 1988). He was elected Cameroonian golden ball in 1985!
These Indomitable Lions marked a whole generation by playing the 1982 and 1990 World Cups. In Spain, Cameroonians were eliminated in the first round, ending third in their group with the same number of points and the same difference in goal as Italy, world champion three weeks later.
The first African feat
Eight years later in Italy, Cameroon won the opening match against Argentina of Diego Maradona (1-0, goal of François Omam-Biyik), before climbing in the quarter-finals to lose extension against England. The first real epic of African football in the history of the World Cup. Kundé equalizes the 61st minute on a penalty spot.
Legend of his selection (127 selections and 15 goals between 1978 and 1992), Kundé also evolved in France, at the Laval stadium (1987-1989) then at the Reims stadium (1988-1989), before ending his career in the country. He tried his luck as a coach, the Canon Yaoundé or Gabon, but without success.
