After a Vincent Aboubakar first half brace from the penalty spot pulled Cameroon out of the cruel jaws of Burkina Faso that had them trailing 1-0 just after 24 minutes, before the Burkinabes twice undid themselves in the penultimate minutes of the opening half in the first match of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Yaounde, the Indomitable Lions have a reason to believe owing to their fine record of their attackers in the continental showpiece.
Cameroon boast of the all-time leading goal scorer at the AFCON finals, legendary striker and ex-Barcelona star Samuel Eto’o who is now the President of the Cameroonian football Federation after ascending to the elective seat last month.
The football icon has 18 goals across the six AFCON finals he featured in, during which he led the Indomitable Lions to winning two of them, in 2000 and 2002.
In the queue there are a number of legendary names that gave an outstanding performance in the previous AFCON finals.
Ivory Coast’s Lourent Pokou comes in with 14 goals scored in the biennial tournament, Hassan El Shazly of Egypt third with 12 goals as Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) and Hossan Hassan (Egypt) boast of 11 goals each.
The Cameroonian squad is a young one under the capataicy of Aboubakar after former skipper Benjamin Moukandjo retired from international football in September 2018, aged 29, after differing sharply with then new coach Clarence Seedorf who claimed that the Chinese Super League with Moukandjo was playing in at the time was not competitive.
The former captain hanged up his international boots just a year after leading the Indomitable Lions to the 2017 AFCON title at the Stade de l’Amitié in Libreville, Gabon, a match he also won the man of the match award.
