2023-06-08 17:09:38
Inter Milan, which will face Manchester City for the Champions League final this Saturday, June 10, is counting on its Cameroonian goalkeeper, André Onana to thwart the odds. A challenge worthy of this goalkeeper with a strong personality.
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« Inter ? They have a lot of qualities, especially Onana. He is special, he reads where the space is, he airs the midfield. (…) Our two teams have good goalkeepers, but he is exceptional with his feet “. The praise is signed Pep Guardiola a few days before the Champions League final between his Manchester City and Inter Milan by André Onana. The Spanish technician from the English club is not into gratuitous flattery, nor into a psychological tactic in order to destabilize his future opponent. Because, like him, many think that, if Inter are playing their first C1 final since 2010, they owe it largely to their last Cameroonian bulwark, author of eight clean sheets (matches without conceding goals) in the competition. .
At 13 at Barça
André Onana, this goalkeeper who ” could wear number 10 on his back “, according to the former legend of Liverpool, Steven Gerrard, is from the lineage of the great Cameroonian goalkeepers. Sort of heirs of Thomas Nkono, Joseph Antoine Bell, Jacques Songo’o or Carlos Kameni.
It was on the makeshift grounds of his native village of Nkol Ngok, in central Cameroon, that André Onana was spotted. The kid joined Fundesport, an academy created by Samuel Eto’o in Douala, before flying away at the age of 13 to Barça, where his godfather was playing at the time. With the Blaugranas, the Indomitable wins the U19 Champions League, but will never have the opportunity to play in the first team.
It was in the Netherlands, at Ajax Amsterdam, that “Nana” would prove to be in five full seasons, winning three league titles in Holland. His ascent is brutally stopped by a positive doping control. In his defense, he claims to have made a mistake by taking a drug intended for his wife. He was suspended for a year by FIFA. His appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will allow him to reduce the “penalty” to nine months. He returns, but settles on the bench of Ajax. This will not make Inter Milan back down, who have been following him for years and who offer him a five-year contract on July 1, 2022.
“Ready to die”
At Inter, forced to alternate in goal with Samir Handanovic at the start of the season, Onana quickly established himself as number 1, to the point of being cited among the best goalkeepers in the world at the moment. A status that his national team does not benefit from. Formerly a pillar of the Cameroonian selection, the 27-year-old goalkeeper has now turned his back on the Indomitables by announcing his international retirement After his dismissal in the middle of the World Cup in Qatar. An exclusion, a consequence of its tempestuous nature, some think.
It is this strong character that allows him to challenge the favorite of the competition, Manchester City, on Saturday. ” We will go to Istanbul to win. Saturday, they will try to prove that they are stronger than us. But we will be there, ready to die”insists the admirer Julio Cesar, former Brazilian doorman of Inter.
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