The Union’s Olivier Mbaizo dreams of the World Cup after being part of Cameroon’s qualification

"It’s a huge honor to represent your country in front of the entire world," Mbaizo said after being part of his nation's epic win in qualifying. Now he's preparing to face Brazil in Qatar.

If Olivier Mbaizo makes Cameroon's World Cup team, he'll become the first active Union player to be on the biggest sports stage in the world.Read more Yong Kim / Staff file photo

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published April 15, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

Olivier Mbaizo sat on the visitors’ bench at the Mustapha Tchaker Stadium in Blida, Algeria, on March 29, facing a fate beyond his control.

After Cameroon lost the home game of its final World Cup qualifying playoff, 1-0, against Algeria, the Indomitable Lions had scored early in the second game. Then they gave up a goal in the 28th of 30 extra minutes.

Surely hope was lost. For the second straight time, Cameroon would fail to qualify for a men’s World Cup.

But there was still time for one last prayer. A throw-in led to a cross that led to a header, and the ball fell to Karl Toko Ekambi for a first-time shot past long-ago Union goalkeeper Raïs M’Bolhi.

Cameroon’s players erupted with joy, and raced en mass to the corner where their visiting fans were delirious in the stands. Mbaizo ended up right in the middle of the global TV broadcast.

In the most stunning fashion, his dream was vividly alive: to become the first active Union player to go to a World Cup.

“It’s a moment we will never forget, a moment that the Cameroonian people will never forget,” Mbaizo told The Inquirer this week. “It was easy to think we had lost. ... But we kept our heads up and we kept fighting until the final minutes, the final seconds, to make it to the World Cup.”

Because the decisive game was on the road, there wasn’t much time to enjoy the celebrations at home. But Mbaizo knew how big they were in his hometown of Douala, Cameroon’s largest city, and nationwide.

“It was crazy, it was a party, it was as if we had won the World Cup,” he said. “Everyone was so proud, and it was a party for three or four days, celebrating qualification.”

‘The dream of dreams’

Although Cameroon has played in seven World Cups since its debut in 1982, it has gotten out of the group stage only once, in 1990. The Lions were that tournament’s Cinderella, upsetting Diego Maradona’s Argentina on the tournament’s opening day and going on to the quarterfinals. Striker Roger Milla became a global star.

This time, Cameroon will play Switzerland and Serbia in the group stage, then finish with another South American superpower: Brazil. Mbaizo has already bantered with Union teammate José Andrés Martínez about facing the five-time World Cup champions, as Martínez played for Venezuela against Brazil twice last year.

“José told me those guys are really good,” Mbaizo said, an in-person confirmation of what everyone sees on TV. “We watch them in the big leagues in Europe every weekend. They have so much talent. We have to be ready mentally and physically, very focused to play against a team like that.”

Of course, it’s jumping the gun to look past the first two games. It’s jumping the gun to presume Mbaizo will make Cameroon’s team in the first place, since he has fallen down the depth chart in recent months.

But when the draw brings up Brazil, the reaction is natural.

“It’s the dream of dreams,” Mbaizo said. “Brazil is one of the great soccer nations, and we all know it — but Cameroon is also a great nation, and we’ve beaten them before.”

A student of history

Mbaizo was just 3 years old when Cameroon shocked Ronaldinho’s Brazil in the 2000 Olympic quarterfinals, winning, 2-1, in extra time despite two red cards. Cameroon went on to win the gold medal, beating a Spain team with Xavi and Carles Puyol on penalty kicks in the final.

In the 2003 Confederations Cup, Cameroon beat Brazil 1-0, with a goal from its best all-time striker, Samuel Eto’o. Ronaldinho was there again, and so was Kléberson, a decade before he came to Philadelphia to play for the Union.

(Kléberson has been in the news again recently, by the way. After a few years as a coach in the Union’s youth academy, he recently earned a promotion to become an assistant coach with the reserve team.)

There is much for Mbaizo to do before he can go to Qatar, starting with a fight to regain the Union’s starting right back job. He did not play well in the season opener, and Jim Curtin benched him for Nathan Harriel a week later. Harriel has remained the starter ever since, and has played very well.

“I missed some of the preseason, and by the time I arrived, the players that were there had already been working well together,” Mbaizo said. “I got the opportunity to play first game of the season, I didn’t play the game I should have played. Things are going well within the team now — I’m working hard to regain my place for games in the future.”