Reports of Jose Mourinho in negotiation for the Cameroon coaching job hit social media like wild fire in the past three days but kick442.com can confirm the will not happen anytime soon.
Though Mourinho is ‘single and searching’ for a new opportunity since after his departure from AS Roma few months ago, the chance to become Cameroon coach is not one that can interest him at the moment.
The Pull Factor;
Jose Mourinho has earned for himself an enviable reputation for being a manager who works and develops sporting projects. Several times, he’s taken over struggling teams and with his midas touch, he’s been able to propel them to higher footballing realms.
His laurels with Porto where he won the champions league, his transformation of Chelsea Fc, projecting it to the firmament of English football and 2 consecutive European finals with As Roma recently attest to his ability of working wonders with clubs.
However for this to happen, there has to be some aesthetics around the team or football project, an attraction and a semblance of belief that the team is worth his time and dedication. In footballing terms, it is the pull power. For some teams, it is their glorious past, for others young budding talent and for some teams it is a combination of both.
Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions have a rich history in Africa and on the global scene. But Cameroon’s recent performances do not speak in its favor with regards to attracting Mourinho. In Cameroon’s last 3 AFCONS, the side only got to the semis in 2021 on home soil.
A first round exit at the 2022 World Cup and a shocking round 16 dropout of the 2023 AFCON do not look results that can warrant the attention of one of the world’s most spectacular coaches.
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon have lost some of their zest with a team that was hitherto filled with a myriad of stars and world class players now boasting of barely three top class players, with all of them now above 25.
The young cast of Indomitable Lions recently called up are at best average players who around the 2000’s wouldn’t be anywhere near the fringes of the five time African champions.
With Cameroon’s recent performances having dealt a serious blow to its attractiveness and with the side now struggling to project top class players, it would be fsr fetched and surely sheer utopia to nurse any belief that Mourinho will trade the glitz and glam of coaching a top European nation or a club for a gruelling stint at the helm of Cameroon.
Financial considerations
Jose Mourinho may be in the job market but it’s inherent to factor that he’s never been a coach who comes in cheap. His last coaching experience with Italians As Roma brought him $ 14.2 million annually. This figure converts to about 8.6 billion Fcfa. Mourinho’s salary last year was about 57% of FECAFOOT’s 15 billion budget for 2023. Even if Mourinho were to entertain this idea, Cameroon’s Football Federation will have to pay him 716 million monthly, a figure alone which surpasses the amount the FA gets annually from its juiciest sponsorship contract. In other words, Fecafoot cannot afford him financially especially at a time when the institution is rumored to be struggling financially coupled with heavy fines from court sentences against former coach Toni Conceicao and Coq Sportif which are yet to paid. There’ll also be the issue of paying his backroom staff which looks very unlikely. There’s also the matter of structure around the current coach. FECAFOOT simply doesn’t have a viable structure that will permit Mourinho thrive. The FA’s technical center in Odza which was slated to be inaugurated in November 2023 as per some FECAFOOT officials is yet to be completed with the national team camping at the private owned Mundi Complex. It will thus be preposterous to believe that Jose Mourinho, the only coach in football’s history to have won a Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference league will be ready to work in such difficult conditions.
Previous rebuttal
There really shouldn’t be any debate about Jose Mourinho heading to Cameroon as five years ago he had already expressed himself on this matter. On September 9, 2019, award winning Cameroonian sportscaster Njie Enow Ebai in an edition of his famous radio sports show “Sports Razzmatazz” on CRTV radio interviewed Jose Mourinho.
Njie Enow Ebai interacts with Jose Mourinho on the microphones of the CRTV
During the chat, Enow quizzed Mourinho if there was a possibility that one day he’ll coach the Indomitable Lions. “The Special One” as Mourinho is referred to mentioned that the occurrences of such a sight was going to be very unlikely, prioritizing club football in Europe. With Mourinho’s stock still very high following his brilliant stint with Roma, his response five years ago surely still obtains till date.
Whatever happens in the days, Cameroon will get a new coach to guide them through AFCON 2025 and the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers but it won’t be Jose.
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