5 forgotten African heroes

#2 Patrick M’Boma

Patrick M'Boma's goal record for Cameroon was phenomenal

While Samuel Eto’o – the most decorated African footballer of all time – and Roger Milla – part of the Italia 1990 heroics – are far better remembered by fans, a third striker from Cameroon actually has a better goals-to-games ratio than either of them. His name? Patrick M’Boma. While he played the role of a journeyman at club level – going from France to Libya via Japan, Italy and England – at international level he was pretty fantastic.

His goal record for Cameroon holds up to any international striker in the modern era – 33 goals in 57 caps, a ratio of 0.6 goals per game – and he won plenty of honours, too. Trips to the 1998 and 2002 World Cups weren’t successful although he scored at both – but his four goals helped Cameroon to the gold medal in the 2000 Olympic tournament and he also netted 7 times in the 2000 and 2002 African Cup of Nations tournaments, enabling Cameroon to win both.

For these efforts M’Boma was named African Player of the Year in 2000, but due to the meteoric rise of his more successful – at club level at least – international teammate Eto’o, and the fact that his club career was never as successful as his efforts with his country, today he’s largely a forgotten man.