Cameroon’s Rigobert Song Kisses National Team Goodbye

Cameroon’s long-time emblematic captain Rigobert Song will announce his retirement from the national team on Sunday during a press conference at the Hilton Hotel in Yaounde, according to Cameroonian news outlet Le Messenger.

The 34-year-old defender, popularly known as Rigo in Cameroon, bows out of active national team football after 16 years of service with the Indomitable Lions, having appeared in 137 games and scored four goals.

Song appeared in eight Africa Cup of Nations, serving as captain in five and winning two - 2000 and 2002. He also played four World Cups – 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2010; and led the Lions to the final of the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup against France, where they lost 1-0 to Les Bleues after the tragic death of midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe in the semi-final opposing Cameroon and Colombia.

Song debuted his career at Yaounde club Tonnerre in 1993 before moving abroad the next year. From 1994 to 2010 he played for nine European clubs, namely FC Metz (France), Salernitana (Italy), Liverpool (England), West Ham United (England), FC Koeln (Germany), RC Lens (France), Galatasaray (Turkey) and Trabzonspor (Turkey).

He first appeared in the national team during the 1994 World Cup held in the USA, where he became the youngest player to be sent off in the finals during the Cameroon – Brazil encounter, which the Africans lost 3-0.

Song was dropped as the Lions’ captain by former coach Paul Le Guen, who opted for Internationale’s Samuel Eto’o to wear the armband.

Song is married with four children and he’s cousin to Arsenal’s Alex Song