Reports from multiple sources in Turkey say 25 year old Cameroonian center back, Patrick Atchom Etoga has been approached by the Turkish Football Federation with a proposal for the Yaounde born Footballer to naturalize and become Turkish.
Born in Yaounde on the 28th of September 1993, Etoga is a potential Lion who has never gotten the attention to cause him to join the Lions Den despite starting his career with amateur side CSFI Douala.
After 5 years in Turkey,the Istanbulspor central defender who can also play as a midfielder was approached recently to take up the Swiss Nationality and represent the country over his country of birth.
The defender is on contract with the club based in the Turkish capital till 2023 and has made 7 appearances in all competitions this season.
Etoga played for Fethiyespor, Muglaspor, Ergene Velimese and Cerkezkoy 1911 before joining Istanbulspor as a free agent in July 2018.
Cameroon is currently sweating to get another central defender to partner Michael Ngadeu Ngadjui.Ngadeu played every minutes of the last AFCON in Gabon with Adolphe Kamga Teikeu as his main partner.
Back up center back in the 2017 AFCON success, Nicolas Nkoulou has since after the tournament turn his back on the Cameroon National selection despite being prolific for Torino in Italy while coach, Clarence Seedorf openly confessed in one of his media outing that his era will be marked by greater attention on good young players who accept the challenges of playing in central Europe.Unfortunately Teikeu is no where around Europe, stressing the need for European based Etoga.
Cameroon face Comoros in an all important AFCON qualifiers game in Yaounde in March this year.Cameroon needs a win in the game to get a “travel ticket” to Egypt to defend their AFCON crown.
Time to act is now and not just act but act swiftly before Patrick Atchom Etoga joins a long list of good Footballers with Cameroonian roots representing other negotiations may have taken place but he is still eligible for his Fatherland.
Kylian Mbappe,Samuel Umtiti,Yvon Mvogo,Francois Moubandje,Breel Donald Embolo,Jean Alain Boumsong, you name the rest and you will realize the list is too long to add the Etoga’s name to it.
Angu Lesley
