Maradona, Omam-Biyik, Bell remember Tataw & Cameroon 1990

Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona has saluted his late Cameroon counterpart Stephen Tataw who died last Friday aged 57.

A right-back in his playing days, Tataw captained Cameroon at the 1990 and 1994 Fifa World Cup tournaments.

At Italy 1990, he led a team that stunned then defending champions Argentina 1-0 in their opening Group B match, thanks to a Francois-Omam Biyik second-half goal.

Posting a picture of himself and Tataw on social media just before the famous match at the San Siro, Maradona saluted the ex-Cameroon skipper.

“Thirty years ago, with Stephen Tataw, captain of the "Indomitable Lions" of Cameroon at the 1990 World Cup. My respects to your family, may you rest in peace,” wrote Maradona.

The 1990 finals were Cameroon’s second appearance at the tournament and Tataw guided his teammates in writing history as the first African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

They were stopped by England, narrowly losing 3-2 after extra time, after claiming the scalps of Romania and Colombia enroute to the Last Eight.

However, most memorable for Cameroon at the tournament was pulling off the shock victory against Maradona’s Argentina, and Omam-Biyik remembers how it was their goalkeeper Thomas N’Kono who saved their day with a string of impressive saves.

“If N’Kono did not have the possibility of stopping the ball, we would’ve lost 2…3…to 4-0. Thomas N’kono gave confidence to the team,” Omam-Biyik told New Frame.

While Omam-Biyik credits N’Kono for a heroic outing, the forward’s goal which separated the two sides was also one for the archives.

He rose highest over Argentina defenders to head in past goalkeeper Nery Alberto Pumpido.

“I jumped very high in my playing career, but that day God said it was my day because the jump was impressive, but the keeper did not do a good job to save the ball,” said Omam-Biyik.

Victories over Argentina and Colombia made Cameroon believe “it was Africa’s World Cup” according to Omam-Biyik, but “maybe if we had experience we would have gone to the semi-finals. We had it all – the passing, dribbling and possession.”

It was an impressive tournament for Cameroon, so much so that N’Kono’s understudy Joseph-Antoine Bell has acknowledged that the team even surprised themselves.

“Though we lost to England, the world started believing in us, knowing Africa could challenge big teams,” Bell said. “What happened to us, we did not prepare for it and we did not even know how we reached there.”

After 1990, Cameroon were involved in five more World Cup tournaments but could not better or replicate their heroics in Italy.

Senegal and Ghana are the only other African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.