Month: March 2016

 

African Player of the year was voted Jean Manga-Onguene. Second was Segun Odegbami (Shooting Stars, Nigeria) and third -one more Cameroonian, Theophile Abega (Canon). Tradition was continued – except Salif Keita in 1970, no European based player appeared among the top 3 of Africa. Domestic players and even more – only Abega of the top 3 this year eventually played in Europe. The top spent their entire careers at home. Technically, playing amateur football. As ever, international results mattered most – Manga-Onguene and Abega won the African Champions Cup, Odegbami became champion of Africa with Nigeria and played at the Olympic games in Moscow too. There will be always the question were journalists more impressed by one or two important matches than from a whole regular season? Odegbami at least was Nigerian legend, but Abega? Considering that his teammate Thomas N’Kono was out of the top 3 for the first time in three years. Anyhow, those were voted the best and in the case of the winner it was well-deserved first place.

Jean Manga-Onguene was born in 1946, debuted in 1966, and played his whole career for Canon (Yaounde). Eventually, he became one of the best know African players, which was particularly important recognition since he never played in Europe. Prolific striker and key figure for both his club and the national team of Cameroon for 15 years – a true star. A star on continental scale. And it was not a case of just a recognizable player – Manga-Onguene was already 5 times champion of Cameroon, 6 times cup winner, had 3 African Champions Cups and 1 Cup Winners Cup. He was more than instrumental for the success of Canon in the 1970s. Was 1980 – when he was 34 – his best year is questionable, but he was still a winner and a key player. If anything, he deserved to be voted number 1 in Africa more than some other guys crowned earlier. The only thing missing in his impressive career was a World Cup – unfortunately, Cameroon qualified only in 1982 and Manga-Onguene was no longer playing then. But even this success happened – to a point – because of him: he was still a national team player in 1980: the heroes of 1982 grew up along him and inspired by him.

The Cup Winners Cup had a bit more incidences than the Champions Cup – two clubs withdrew without playing at all: Ader Club (Niger) and Dingareh (Gambia). Strangely, the club benefiting from Ader Club’s withdrawal did the same in the next round – Esperance (Tunisia) left the tournament without playing a single match. No luck for the Cameroonian represent: Dynamo (Douala) qualified directly to the second round, thanks to a bye, but there they faced Eleven Wise of Ghana. More or less, Ghana was one of the consistently strong African nations and Eleven Wise prevailed over the Cameroonians 2-1 and 1-1. Meantime, the Zairian representative, TP Mazembe, was going as well as their compatriots in the Champions Cup – the first loss and first difficulties they had in the ¼ finals. Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Nigeria, was traditionally strong opponent and perhaps even more so in the year of rising Nigerian football. TP Mazembe still won the penalty shoot-out, though. They had easy – on paper – opponent at the semi-finals: Kadiogo (Upper Volta, today – Burkina Faso). It should have been a walk in the park, but it was not – Mazembe won only 1-0 at home and extracted a 2-2 tie away. The other semi-final was tough: Africa Sports (Cote d’Ivoire) vs MA Hussain-Dey (Algeria), two of the better African clubs. Africa Sports won 1-0 at home and survived Algerian assault in the second leg, tying the match 2-2. Africa Sports and TP Mazembe contested the Cup Winners Cup. The winner was really decided in the first leg in Algeria – Mazembe won 3-1, making the second match a mere formality. They won it too, only the result was minimal – 1-0. TP Mazembe won their first Cup Winners Cup!

Africa Sports of Abidjan are one of the two strongest Cote d’Ivoirean clubs, but internationally they did not win anything for a long time. 1980 was perhaps their first real attempt to conquer Africa, but they failed. Reaching the final was great, though.

TP Mazembe won their first Cup Winners Cup, but it was just one trophy to them – back in 1960s they won the Champions Cup twice: 1966 and 1967. Back then they were named Englebert – named after their sponsor, a tire brand. The original name of the club was Saint Georges – since the club was founded by Benedictine monks. After the Ravens (as the club is nicknamed) won 3 consecutive titles, in the 1966 Tout Puissant (Almighty) was added to the official name. By 1980 the name was TP Mazembe – today more history is recognized, so the current name includes Englebert too. As for the team hailing from Lubumbashi… hard to tell.

TP Mazembe 1980 – is there a goalkeeper at all?

Or may be these are our boys? Nice and rare kit – the picture very likely is not from the final against Africa Sports, but it is worthy showing just for the design. The Ravens excelled not only by playing – their kits are great.

Africa was almost unnoticed in 1980, but football was played, of course. At a glance, international football was less disorganized and chaotic than before. Only 2 clubs withdrew from the African Champions Cup – Limbe Leaf Wanderers (Malawi) and Comercial Bank (Uganda). All other participants played and the tournament was played without visible scandals. Cameroon was represented by 2 teams – Union (Douala) as African Cup holders and Canon (Yaounde) as champion of the country. Both reached the semi-finals, proving once again the superiority of Cameroonian club football. The other two semi-finalists represented old power and emerging new one: AS Bilima (Zaire) and Bendel Insurance (Nigeria). AS Bilima eliminated Union (Douala) – 0-1 and 5-1 at home, but Bendel Insurance was unsuccessful against Canon – they managed a 0-0 tie in Yaounde, but were destroyed 2-4 in front of their home crowd. So, the final was between Canon and AS Bilima. On November 30 Canon struggled, hosting the first leg of the final – 2-2 at their stadium Militaire Garoua, Yaounde. Like in the semi-final, Canon was stronger visitor than host – on December 14 AS Bilima had no chance at 20th May Stadium in Kinshasa. Canon destroyed them 3-0! And won their 3rd African Champions Cup!

AS Bilima is a bit of a mystery – the club is old by African standards, but finding information about them is very difficult. They were found as AS Dragons and most of the time used the original name. But a few years in the second half of the 1970s the club was known as AS Bilima. Bilima left practically no information, not even a crest of its own. However, this was excellent season for them – they lost only 2 matches in the tournament: one in the semi-final and one in the final. Unfortunately, the second loss was crucial one – the Cup went elsewhere.

Arguably, Canon was the strongest African club at the time – their rival was Hafnia (Conakry), but it looked like the Guineans were fading away already. Canon, however, was getting only better.

As for the team, the world knew only one player of the African champions – Jean Manga-Oungene. He was already 34 years old – too old to attract the interest of any European club, but he perhaps had the respected career on the African continent: this was his 4th international cup won with Canon. It was another player of this team to become a household name around the world – but in 1982. Canon was doing really well since 1970: 5 Cameroonian titles, 5 Cameroonian Cups, 3 times African club champions, one African Cup Winners Cup – and three continental cups in succession: Champions Cup in 1978, Cup Winners Cup in 1979, and again Champions Cup in 1980. Excellent record.