Yaya vs Eto’o: Whose World Cup failure was greater?

Frankly, Cameroon and Ivory Coast’s failure to progress beyond the First Round of the World Cup on a combined seven occasions is a bitterly disappointing statistic when you consider just how much talent both teams possessed. 

The Indomitable Lions couldn’t make good on their promise of the early 2000s and in the early 2010s despite the presence of Africa’s greatest forward Samuel Eto’o while the Elephants’ vaunted generation failed to advance to the Round of 16 in spite of Yaya Toure’s midfield dynamism.

A young Eto’o made his debut in 1998 and featured in three more finals in 2002, 2010 and 2014. Toure was the heartbear of the Ivory Coast team that made history by progressing to the spectacle for a maiden appearance in 2006 only to fail to live up to their billing in Germany, 2010 and 2014.

Eto’o featured in two iterations of the Indomitable Lions’ set-ups, which admittedly had varying levels of talent, yet his failure with the five-time African champions seems greater on paper, but is that assumption valid upon close inspection? 

Cameroon in 1998

The then 17-year-old debuted at the showpiece in a young Cameroon side comprising no fewer than seven teenagers. Many from Henri Michel’s 1994 team, most notably Roger Milla, had been phased out for the new generation, with the only major standout name being Rigobert Song, who was appearing at his second finals.

Despite their youth, the Indomitable Lions were backed to advance from Group B containing top seeds Italy, Chile and Austria. The Azzurri proved their worth, but the teams below them failed to win and the South Americans advanced after drawing all three fixtures. 

Elimination for the African side was disappointing not only because of their opponents’ lowly ranking before the competition began (both were in the bottom seven), but their inability to see out a 1-0 lead against the Austrians in their group opener proved costly.

While Claude Le Roy’s troops exited after a feisty 1-1 draw with Chile, Eto’o featured for about half-hour in the Indomitable Lions’ 3-0 thrashing by Italy in the second group game. 

2002

A whole lot had transpired since Cameroon’s participation in France, their Golden Generation had picked up two Africa Cup of Nations titles at the start of the millennium and were primed to take the world by storm having matured…or so many thought.

Throw in 2000’s Olympic Gold into the mix and Eto’o and co. were backed to advance despite drawing Germany, a nation that had produced the 2001 Champions League winner and a finalist in 2002, Republic of Ireland and Saudi Arabia. 

However, they were undone by an impressive Ireland side who’d lost just one competitive match leading to the competition in Asia and finished with five points from a possible nine.

Winfried Schafer’s team picked up four points, but their efforts were in vain as they ended third. 

Eto’o, now a main component of the side, netted in the African champions’ only win over the Saudi’s, still their Confederations Cup run to the final a year later perhaps indicates they could have done better at the World Cup.

After narrowly missing out to Ivory Coast (more on them later) in 2006, Eto’o missed out on the showpiece as a Champions League winner but was given another chance in his prime in South Africa. 

He headed into the finals having won successive European trebles with Barcelona and Inter Milan and hoped to be third-time lucky in a tricky Group E alongside eventual finalists the Netherlands, Denmark and Japan, who qualified despite ranking in the bottom five of the 32 nations.

Paul Le Guen’s troops lost all three games despite Eto’o’s best efforts (he scored both their goals in defeats by the Dutch and Danes) and went out alongside five of the six African nations, including Yaya Toure’s Ivory Coast.

2014

A 33-year-old Eto’o participated at his final World Cup in 2014 in perhaps the worst iteration of the Indomitable Lions in years. They’d failed to participate at Afcon in 2012 and 2013 and went on to be eliminated in the Group Stage in 2015. 

The nation’s all-time goalscorer could do nothing as his nation expectedly finished bottom of Group A containing hosts Brazil and fellow South Americans Mexico. Croatia ended third in a fairly tough group with three points. 

Ivory Coast, for their part, had a last-gasp penalty miss by Pierre Wome to thank for progressing to the 2006 showpiece for the first time. The Cameroon left-back missed the 95th-minute spot-kick in their final qualifying game with Egypt which ended 1-1 in Yaounde.

The Elephants won the group by a point, and Yaya and co. had achieved an unprecedented feat in the nation’s history.

Ivory Coast in 2006

Despite possessing the individual quality, the Elephants were handed a daunting task of progressing from Group C that included heavyweights Argentina and the Netherlands, as well as Serbia & Montenegro. 

Impressively, the West Africans weren’t embarrassed in their first finals but ultimately couldn’t compete with the group’s top teams, losing both games 2-1.

Yaya featured in all three fixtures and was involved in the memorable 3-2 win over the Serbs, a turnaround from 2-0 down, to record their first World Cup win.

2010

Again, the Elephants didn’t get the luck of the draw in South Africa, as they drew Brazil, Portugal and lowly North Korea, making their first appearance since 1966. They held a Cristiano Ronaldo-led Selecao to a 0-0 result, were beaten 3-1 by Brazil and defeated the Asians 3-0. 

Four points would have been enough to progress from four other groups in the finals, but Sven-Goran Eriksson’s team bowed out owing to a punishing draw that placed them alongside two of the competition’s strong sides.

Yaya did score in the Elephants’ 3-0 success over North Korea to open his World Cup account.

2014

If events of 2010 hurt Ivory Coast, their 2014 elimination presumably caused more grief in the West African nation given they had progress to the Round of 16 snatched at the death by Greece.

Having won their opening game 2-1 over Japan, Yaya and his teammates lost to rampant group winners Colombia and needed to avoid defeat against the European side to advance.

A Wilfried Bony equaliser with 15 minutes to play seemed to be enough until the concession of a late, late penalty saw the Greeks win 2-1 to end second on four points behind the unblemished South Americans. 

It proved to be Didier Drogba’s final tournament for the national team and the Chelsea icon retired from international duty after the competition in Brazil.

Despite failing to win the Africa Cup of Nations, Ivory Coast pulled their weight at the World Cup and were simply unfortunate to have been hard done by tough draws in 2006 and 2010. 

Mistakes in their final 2014 group game against the 2004 European champions cost them and the arguable award of the late penalty remains a debate to date (the Ecuadorian referee penalised Giovanni Sio for fouling Georgios Samaras but replays showed the forward had kicked into the ground).

Cameroon, on the other hand, underwhelmed spectacularly despite getting favourable draws in 1998, 2002 and 2010 but were unsuccessful each time and finished bottom of their group on three occasions, with 2014 the worst showing. 

Their lack of success in the 2010s were somewhat expected, but ’98 and ’02 were huge opportunities missed.

Ivory Coast, for all their failings on the continent, had the potential to better Africa’s best showing at the showpiece but were ultimately dealt a bad hand by Lady Luck.