Manchester United new boy Andre Onana is latest in long line of classy Cameroonian keepers

West Central African country maintains strong tradition for producing top-level shot-stoppers

Andre Onana is set to join Manchester United from Inter Milan. EPA

Francois Onana used to tell his young son, Andre, about "The Cat". It wasn’t so easy then to locate extensive footage of the legendary Cameroonian goalkeeper, Tommy "Cat" N’Kono, icon of the West Central African country’s finest showing at a World Cup, but the stories were many and vivid.

Some reckon N’Kono to be the most gifted keeper Cameroon ever produced, but, even in his prime, there would be arguments about that.

His near-contemporary, Joseph-Antoine "Jojo" Bell has ardent fans. For well over a decade, their joust over who should wear the No 1 jersey for the so-called Indomitable Lions was fierce, and felt sharply by the two rivals, men of different personalities and skill-sets.

More than a generation on, Cameroonian goalkeeping retains its special aura, its high status in world football. And it is still a theatre for argument. Andre Onana, the latest in a long line of admired Lions With Gloves and the new €55 million signing at Manchester United, would bear witness to that.

Two months ago, Onana was helping Inter Milan to the European Champions League final. Eight months back, he was losing his position in the national side during a World Cup, following tactical disagreements with his coach, Rigobert Song, and other management staff.

Cameroonians of Onana’s parents’ – or grandparents’ – generation watched that row unfold with a sense of déjà-vu. Back in 1990, when Cameroon’s goalkeeping expertise was at peak strength, a dispute on the eve of the tournament led to Bell, the first pick, being controversially dropped; N’Kono, assigned at that time a role as back-up, was selected.

The rest is history, N’Kono became part of the feted team that beat Argentina in the opening match of Italia ‘90 and missed out on the semi-finals only in extra time of a see-saw 3-2 loss to England. At that stage, no African team had ever gone so far at a World Cup.

No African nation had ever boasted such a worldly stable of keepers. In that era, when far fewer African professionals played in European leagues than now, goalkeepers from sub-Saharan Africa flourishing abroad were even more of a rarity.

Except, that is, for Cameroonians. Bell played more than 350 matches for various French top-division clubs through the 1980s and 1990s, and wore the captain’s armband for Olympique Marseille.

N’Kono, who had made a fine impression at the 1982 World Cup, staged in Spain, signed for Espanyol, where he has been based first as a player and then as coach for much of his life. He reached a Uefa Cup final – the Europa League equivalent – with the Barcelona-based club in 1988, and later became Espanyol’s long-serving goalkeeping coach.

There were others. Jacques Songo’o – just under a decade younger than N’Kono, now 67, and Bell, 68 – won the Spanish league at the turn of the millennium in goal for Deportivo La Coruna.

Carlos Kameni, now in his 40th year, was still playing professionally in Europe last season at the tail-end of a career that featured a Spanish Cup triumph with Espanyol, 73 caps for his country, and his own share of disputes with Cameroon’s management.

Onana, 27, grew up with this tradition, these role models. “Because Cameroon had the best goalkeepers in Africa, young players wanted to be keepers,” observes Bell, “and their parents encouraged them.”

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Case in point: “My father would tell me all about Tommy N’Kono, and how he had reflexes like a cat,” Onana recalled during his breakthrough season with Ajax, in 2016/17.

Even in the 1980s, N’Kono and Bell represented not just a single, powerful strand in one country’s rich football culture but distinct modern schools of goalkeeping.

“Tommy had his sober approach, Jojo his showmanship, a reflection of their characters,” recalled Claude Le Roy, who coached Cameroon in the 1980s and 1990s. Bell was more confident with his feet, more inclined to make ambitious passes outside his penalty box. N’Kono had his reflexes and a longer reach as a shot-stopper.

In Onana, there are both aspects. No keeper made more saves or kept more clean sheets in last season’s Champions League. Few showed greater inclination to also act as an extra central defender, stride well beyond the edge of his box and launch long, accurate passes. It’s his trademark, but also the tendency that Song thought risky at the World Cup.

There is little that is timid about Onana. He’s vocal, and happy to answer back to a senior teammate. He and Inter’s Edin Dzeko had a very public disagreement, on the pitch, during last season’s Champions League tie against Porto.

It is this forthright leader that Erik ten Hag, United’s manager and Onana’s manager at Ajax for three-and-a-half years, has pushed hard to recruit. Ten Hag will assume the risks in his proactive style – and back him to be the bossier, ball-playing upgrade on the departed David de Gea.