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Roger Milla, Best African Player in 50 years (15.01.2007)
He was voted within the framework of the 50th anniversary celebration of CAF.
Cameroon’s legendary player, Roger Albert Milla, has been voted the best African footballer from 1957 to 2006. The old Lion obtained 2246 votes to emerge first ahead of two Egyptians, Mahmoud El Khatib (2165 points) and Hossam Hassan (2011 points) who came in the second and third positions respectively. Another Cameroonian who is on the path of becoming a football legend also, Samuel Eto’o Fils, comes in the fourth position with 1840 points. In all there are three Cameroonians on the list of 30 players including Rigobert Song Bahanag who came 29th.
CAF had intended to release the results progressively in a descending order (from the 30th to the 1st) and to only declare the final winner on February 8, date of CAF creation in Khartoum, but was forced to abandon this formula following pressure from the media on the identity of the winner. The vote, carried out on the Internet, falls within the framework of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Confederation of African Football, CAF. The institution had asked Internet users to choose 50 players who have played a significant role in African football from 1957 to 2006. From an initial shortlist of 200 players, only 30 were retained. Only names that scored at least 200 points were taken into consideration. The selection was done based on national, regional, continental, as well as FIFA and Olympic tournaments. In order to give old and new generation players equal chances given that the older generation did not enjoy media impact, a system of coefficients was put in place dividing the period into four.
It is not surprising that Milla came out first. He is one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage. Amazingly, he did not achieve international stardom until he was 38, an age at which most other footballers have long since retired. Milla signed for his first
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club in Douala as a 13-year-old. At 18, he won his first league championship with another Douala-based club. In 1976, when he moved to Tonnerre Yaounde, he was awarded the African Golden Ball.
In 1977, he was lured to Europe by the French club Valenciennes. In 1979, he joined AS Monaco and the next year, he joined Bastia. He finally found stardom at Saint-Etienne in 1984 and later on starred for Montpellier from 1986 to 1989, and became a member of the club`s coaching staff after retiring from French football. While playing in France, he made his first appearance for the Cameroon national team in 1978. He was a member of Cameroon`s team at the 1982 World Cup and scored a good goal that was unfortunately refused against Peru in their first match. Two years later, he was part of the squad competing at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. He first retired from international football in 1987, and eventually moved to Réunion in the Indian Ocean for his retirement. However, in 1990, he was called to rejoin the national team by the President of the Republic. Milla emerged as one of the major stars of Italy 1990 World Cup. He scored four goals in Italy, celebrating each one with a dance around the corner post that has become a popular goal celebration dance ever since. Two of his goals came against Romania in Cameroon`s second game, and two more came in extra time against Colombia in the last 16 to carry Cameroon to the quarter-finals, the furthest that an African team has ever advanced at the World Cup. Milla returned to the 1994 World Cup at the age of 42. In the USA, Cameroon was knocked out in the group stages; however, Milla scored the consolation prize of a goal against Russia, breaking his own record as the oldest goal scorer in a World Cup tournament. He is now a roving ambassador. In 2004, he was part of the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé in conjunction with FIFA`s centenary celebrations.
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