Captain of the Indomitable Lions for less than two years, Stéphane Mbia Etoundi is usually singled out as one of the problems of the national team.

On August 25, 2014, the Indomitable Lions came back from their shameful expedition at the World Cup in Brazil, and in the weeks that followed, the Minister of Sports and Physical Education of the time, Adoum Garoua, took a courageous decision.

Stephane Mbia was designated as the new captain of the Indomitable Lions. He was assisted by Eric Choupo Moting and Vincent Aboubakar.

They replace the former assistants Nicolas Nkoulou and Eyong Enoh, and above all Samuel Eto’o. The best scorer of the Lions (56 goals in 118 caps), captain since 2010, had decided a few days later, to the end his international career. An affront that his fans never digested.

“Eto’o has ended his career precipitously. His armband was given to Mbia; he was not called for the first game of the Lions after the World Cup. For his entourage, this is a humiliation that must be repaired, “analyzed an observer who understood that the current captain is the perfect scapegoat.

Less than six months later, the first “scandals” occurred. Stéphane Mbia was first accused of imposing his brother, Frank Etoundi, to the national team. During a private discussion with former coach Volker Finke, we learn that the reality was different.

“A friend told me about Frank Etoundi. I went from Germany to supervise him in Fc Zurich in Switzerland, without knowing he was the kid brother of Stéphane. I discovered during a reunion of the Lions “, said the German coach.

During the AFCON 2015, the current player of Hebei China Fortune FC was again in the press for another fishy story. This time, the former defender of the Olympique de Marseille was alleged to have convinced Volker Finke to keep Clinton Njie on the Lions bench.

The reason according to advocates of this view, “the little Njie would have been disrespectful to his elder.” Another person denied this information, this time, it was the Team Press Officer, Vincent de Paul Atangana, without however changing the mind of many.

Mbia was not at the end of his troubles. In August 2015, while he just signed with Trabzonspor, the footballer aged 30, was accused of having evacuated his family in Turkey, claiming that they were under the threat of the terrorist group Boko Haram. The denials and other development from the Turkish club did not change much.

At the last gathering of the National Team, the captain still suffered the wrath of the press. This time, journalists were reporting a heated exchange between Mbia and vice-captain, Vincent Aboubakar.

The second would have called out the first who was trying to make the new coach Hugo Broos to understand that, he was making a big mistake by benching veteran players like Landry Nguemo, Sébastien Bassong, etc for the advantage of young players. Another denial from the Team Press has not changed the position of many vis-a-vis the captain.

Only problems in only 21 months captaincy! Some even say that he is on the way of being stripped of his title of captain. “Mbia was among those who pushed Eto’o to the exit to get his armband.

The same thing will happen to him, “predicts an analyst. A position that can help to understand why there is so much history around the boy from Biyem-Assi in Yaounde.