Onguéné mistaken for daughter of Jean Manga Onguéné

"Gabrielle Aboudi Onguéné is the daughter of Jean Manga Onguéné, former player and coach of Cameroon." This information is almost official, and can be easily confirmed by many websites, including the most famous online encyclopedia.

With this vital information, FIFA.com set out to meet the Cameroon midfielder who performed exceptionally during the match against Ecuador and Japan. Most media houses were eager to arrange an interview with Jean Manga to listen to him sing praises of his daughter.

"But who are you talking about?" Gabrielle replied, a bit embarrassed when we talked about how proud her father must be when he saw his daughter represent Cameroon for the first World Cup in its history. "He is not my father!” she exclaimed.

Moments after the revelation was numerous apologies, confusion and laughter. The misunderstanding was soon solved and paved an excellent mood for the rest of the interview.

Apologies was rendered to Mr. Clement Onguéné, the real father of Gabrielle who ironically has a picture of Jean Manga hung in his living room. "I can still say that he is a father. He is the father of all players through all he has done for football in Cameroon”, says Gabrielle, more amused than offended by the misunderstanding.

Escape and Success

Gabrielle said it was a good thing to forgive the mistakes of others as she admitted to have made mistakes in the past, particularly during her first encounter with a football. "I was playing with the boys in the neighborhood, when a Mr. Ibrahim spotted me and took me for my first game in a girls' club," she recounted her debut at Ngondi Nkam Yabassi in Douala.

"When I arrived, I saw that it was work, training and exercises. For me, football was: 'I come to the field, I put on my boots and then I play. In my neighborhood nobody told me what I had to do. I did a week of training and I ran away".

A mistake which many do and Mr. Ibrahim, however, did not give up on her. He caught up with her and convinced her to participate in a tournament where she caught the eye of the Canon of Yaoundé, one of the biggest clubs in the country. Barely a year later, she was selected to be part of the team. "At that time, the women's team was not much recognized”, she recalls nine years after her international debut.

"I had always played football with the boys. So it seemed easy when I started playing with girls. I realized that I had the talent, but I did not work on it initially. I began enjoying the training sessions and got motivated."

The Indomitable Lionesses were in constant progress under the leadership of Onguéné. They placed fourth in CAN 2010, third in 2012, second in 2014 and Cameroon has a goal for the 2016 edition. "We have to win this trophy" says the Louves de Minproff player who assessed that the gap is not so great with Nigeria, which makes it difficult in continental competitions. "I do not think there's a big difference. But in a game there are costly errors and unfortunately, we commit them the most”.

The margin for error

Gabrielle has played at the Olympic Football Tournament London 2012, which Cameroon took part for the first time. Despite three defeats in as many matches, and one insignificant goal scored, the work of Onguéné is with no disappointment.

"For the first time we had a great tournament. It was going so fast that we were a bit behind time”, she admitted. “We also conceded a lot of goals but within us, we were proud of ourselves because if we do not get qualified for such competitions, we will never know what it is to expect. Today, we know that we must not make mistakes that cost us in 2012 at the World Cup."

Cameroon scored six goals against Ecuador (6: 0) and lost to Japan, the defending champion (2: 1) with the goal scored by Onguéné. "The level of the national championship is not intense enough to prepare for a World Cup. So each of us should personally try and work on it", said the vice-captain of the Lionesses. "Training with the club is not enough. So I included workouts and trained with the men's team to gain a higher capability to face the best teams in the world."

The work almost paid off with the match against the world champions Japan, but in two previous games, concentration errors deprived Cameroon a success which would lead to them qualifying for the knockout stages. So, before facing Switzerland on June 15, Onguéné Gabrielle said she is ready to minimize errors.