Following his suspension from the Cameroon team during the World Cup, Andre Onana declared that there was “no will on the other side” to make amends.
According to reports, the 26-year-old was involved in Qatar 2022 for the last time and planned to leave the nation on Tuesday.
Onana issued a statement following his surprise demotion, which Cameroon team officials blamed on undisclosed “disciplinary reasons” on Monday. Onana, for his part, denies acting improperly in the team’s best interests.
Devis Epassy was preferred for Monday’s thrilling 3-3 World Cup draw, so coach Rigobert Song benched the goalkeeper against Serbia.
According to reports, Onana was benched following an argument with Song over his tactical choices in the 1-0 defeat of Switzerland, when he made the most touches outside of the penalty area of any goalkeeper ever seen in a World Cup game.
Onana has refuted that claim, stating the following on the Relevo website: “The game with the feet? No, there is nothing.”
He issued a statement on Twitter, saying his suspension was tough to understand.
It read: “Yesterday I was not allowed to be on the ground to help Cameroon, as I always do, to achieve the team’s goals. l always behaved in a way to lead the team to success in a good manner.
“I have put all my efforts and energy into finding solutions to a situation that a footballer often experiences, but there has been no will on the other side. Some moments are difficult to assimilate.
“However, I always respect and support the decisions of the people in charge of pursuing the success of our team and country. l extend all my strength to my team-mates because we demonstrated that we are capable of going very far in this competition.
“The values that I promote as a person and as a player are the ones that identify me, and that my family has given me since my childhood. Representing Cameroon has always been a privilege. The nation first and forever.”
Onana also told Relevo: “I’m fine. If it’s fair or not it doesn’t matter any more. The most important thing is that the country always wins and I wish them a lot of luck.”
The final Group G match pits Cameroon against Brazil on Friday. Cameroon is two points back of Switzerland in second place and needs to win to have any chance of moving on.
