Pressure on Njie risks making him ineffective - Ekéké

The 30th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations starts on Saturday 17th January in Equatorial Guinea with the opening match pitting the host country against Congo-Brazzaville.

Cameroon, which shares Group D with Mali, Guinea Conakry and Côte d'Ivoire, enters the scene January 20 against Mali. Eugène Ekéké, quarter-finalist with Cameroon 1990 World Cup, now a trainer of young footballers through his training center Eugène Ekéké academy based in Douala, thinks that his country has all the cards in hand to make a good figure, provided the boys are not pressured. "Do not ask a group that is barely three months old to go and win the AFCON. Do not put them under so much pressure. We must be patient", he hinted on a local radio.

Speaking of pressure, Eugène Ekéké believes that the young attacker Clinton Njie suffers much from the Cameroonian public. “I take the example of a boy like Clinton Njie. We put so much pressure on him. He played the matches well, but he is still young. He has just begun. To the point that whenever he has the ball he had the impression that he must achieve a feat. With this pressure on him, he might become anxious and ineffective.