Stéphane Mbia confides on his confinement in Cameroon

Text by: Antoine Grognet Follow

From Yaoundé, where he is confined due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Cameroonian midfielder has agreed to confide in RFI. The double winner of the Europa League (2014 and 2015) ensures feeling secure. “Cameroonians are all aware of the danger. I am worried but the safety instructions are followed. But he does not know when he can return to China, where he lives.

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“ I spend time with my father in Yaoundé. It's an evil for a good. Stéphane Mbia wants to be a philosopher, but the Cameroonian midfielder has a hard time with his current situation. Because the 2010 French champion with Marseille has just experienced trying weeks. Now confined to Yaoundé, the Shanghai Shenhua player was still in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, on January 24, as a resident of Wuhan Zall, the main formation of Hubei. It was only on this day that the Cameroonian left the province to enter the 13th in the last season of the Super League.

Fright in China

What inspire him a retrospective fright. “ My wife and children were to join me in Wuhan, where I was going to do my preseason ( with the Wuhan Zall, note). But, while she was in Paris (in transit) I sent an SMS to my wife to tell her that I had signed in Shanghai. And while I'm in Shanghai, the authorities close everything in Wuhan, the schools, the trains, the planes. So I warn my wife not to take her flight. "

His family decides to leave for Abidjan while Mbia flies to Dubai with his new team. A double relief for the player: “ I didn't realize at the time, but my children and my wife could have ended up in Wuhan while I was in Dubai or Shanghai. We were very, very lucky. "

Stuck in Cameroon

At the end of the training course in the Emirates with his team, Mbia returns to Yaoundé for administrative procedures. “ I came to Cameroon to apply for a visa to return to China. But the borders were closed when I arrived. A closure implemented on March 18 by the Cameroonian government to stem the contagion and which could deprive Mbia of the start of the season with his new team. “ The club is waiting for me to resume training on April 14. The championship restarts in May, measures have been taken in China. And I am stuck in Cameroon because the territory is closed. For the past two weeks, Mbia has been confined to his home in Yaoundé, where he has been following the physical preparation program sent to him by his club. Imitated by his father who, at 70, accompanies him every day in his sports sessions!

It is in Yaoundé that the former Marseillais learned of the death of Pape Diouf, former president of OM, who died in Dakar following the Covid-19. If they did not work together, Diouf having left the Olympian club before Mbia's arrival in 2009, the news saddened him. “ Diouf is renewal. It is he who recruits Didier Deschamps, it is he who builds the title of 2010. "And humanely, the Cameroonian keeps the memory of a man" of incredible intelligence, who gave a lot of advice to young people. It's a big loss for the world of football . "

Interview by Christophe Jousset,

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