African Player of the Year. For a long time the best players were from the most successful teams and it is futile to ask were the voted best really the best players during the year. Thus, the four players at the top of African voting in 1990 represented Cameroon and Algeria as expected. Rabah Majer (Algeria and FC Porto, Portugal) and Francois Omam-Biyik (Cameroon and Rennes, France) shared 3rd place with 60 points each. Tahar Cherif El-Ouazzani (Algeria and Aydinspor, Turkey) was voted 2nd with 64 points. But that was only academic… the three players’ combined record of 184 points failed short by far from the winner’s 209 points. The year’s favourite had no rivals at all and he was Roger Milla.
Such was charm of the World Cup’s ‘discovery’ and instant international fame of practically retired player. And because of the Cameroonian success, a tiny anonymous club from tiny anonymous country also became known, as if to play one more joke on modern football. For, if anything, Milla still had some kind of a club he played for and records require writing down… Roger Milla, Cameroon and Saint-Pierroise (Saint-Pierre, Reunion). After retiring from professional football, Milla kind of settled in the small island in the Indian Ocean and kicked the ball a bit for fun with the local team. And since he kicked the ball, he was not retired, wasn’t he? Saint-Pierroise won the championship of Reunion as it was, so Milla won a trophy too – hard to argue he was a retiree after his World Cup fame, which eventually brought some light on his playing activities during the year. Anyhow, those amusing facts and questions meant very little after he surprised the world, became instantly everybody’s darling, and outperformed much younger great starts collecting huge paychecks from European big clubs.
After all, it was not Milla’s winning the championship of Reunion, but his World Cup performance and goals, instrumental for the best ever African performance at World Cup finals and propelling Cameroon to the ¼ finals – and almost to the ½ finals. Of course, his first goal against Colombia remains immortal, even if Rene Hiquita’s arrogance is largely to blame. At the end, Milla deserved to be continental player of the year more than anybody else – and it was the second time he was voted number 1 African player – the first time was in 1976, solely based on the successful performance of his already third club: Tonnere (Yaounde). This success propelled him to professional football in France, where he played for 5 clubs in 10 years without getting much notice: funny in way, but Milla was voted African number one when playing for amateur African clubs, but not when playing professionally in France. And he was discovered twice – the first time at 24, when he was noticed by professional French clubs, and second time, when he 38 years old and retired. Amazing comeback, which was really comeback, for Milla left Reunion and returned to active playing in Cameroon at the end of 1990 and played until 1996 for Tonnere (Yaounde) and abroad, adding one more World Cup and new records. It was not a Cinderella story – it was granddad story, unique. Unique even in terms of the rising of African football: 1990 was the last year the African player of the year was actually playing for African club – after that will be only players playing for big European professional clubs voted best. To a point – perhaps a big point – Milla made African players valuable and truly recognized.
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