Enoh is aiming high

Eyong Enoh is a holding midfielder in the Claude Makelele mould.

His first call-up for Cameroon was shrouded in farce. Now, the robust Ajax midfielder is hoping to help the Indomitable Lions emulate the stars of Italia '90. Eyong Enoh was not even an international footballer a year ago. In seven days, the 22-year-old is expected to line up in Cameroon's midfield at the World Cup. Japan will be Cameroon's opponents in Bloemfontein, almost a year to the day since Enoh was told to report to the training camp of his national team in Brussels. He initially thought the request was a joke, someone taking advantage of the turmoil in the national team at the time. But he was persuaded that it was genuine and drove from Amsterdam, in Holland, where he plays club football with Ajax, to the Belgian capital. His suspicions were partly confirmed when he arrived.

The coach who called him up had just walked out on the team, leaving Enoh to explain to bewildered officials that he had genuinely been called up. This, for a country ranked 14th in the world. "It was all a little strange," said the son of a law graduate who became a customs officer and a teacher, "but I trained to the best of my ability and was selected to play. Thank God, I have been involved ever since."

Enoh was used to stepping into the unknown following a nomadic career in club football which saw him begin on the sand and gravel pitches in Cameroon and go on to Northern Cyprus, South Africa and Holland by the age of 21. He moved from Cameroon to Northern Cyprus because a teammate came from there, but playing in a football outpost was not the best move for career advancement. A trial was arranged for him in 2007 at Ajax Cape Town, the sister club to the Amsterdam giants which had provided them with Benni McCarthy and Stephen Pienaar.

Enoh's energetic and tenacious display saw him signed up after two days, a pattern which would be repeated. Enoh was named the South African league's Player of the Year for 2008, after which Ajax Amsterdam had first refusal on the midfielder and flew him to Holland for a trial. "The trial went well," he said. Very well indeed. The four-time European Cup winners produced a contract after two days and a debut goal against rivals Feyenoord saw the deeply religious Enoh quickly cement his first-team place. He was compared with Claude Makelele, the lynchpin of the French team.

Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan striker, may get the headlines and be linked with the biggest sides, but Enoh was the Dutch club's best player in 2009/10. "He's really rated by Ajax fans," said Imre, a season ticket holder. "He's a modest bloke who plays like a tiger. He still gets a few too many yellow cards, but the lad never gives up and didn't play a bad game in the whole season. He's become a cult figure."

"My career has been very varied, but it's been a great learning curve," Enoh said. "I want to play for the best teams in the world and I'll go wherever God leads me, but first the World Cup." It is a competition which holds special resonance for fans of the Indomitable Lions. "The 1990 World Cup was my earliest memory," said Enoh, who will play alongside established names such as Samuel Eto'o and Alexandre Song under Paul Le Guen, the coach. "My house was full of excitement because of Roger Milla [the country's legendary striker and their star of the 1990 tournament, which saw them eliminated at the quarter-final stage by England].

"We want to repeat that feeling for every Cameroonian on our own continent. We have a very good team and an excellent coach. "We're in a tough group with Holland, Denmark and Japan, but we're confident that we can progress from the group stages and then take it from there." @Email:[e-mail]