Carl Enow Ngatchu spent some 14 years at the helm of Cameroon’s female national team.
He takes massive credit for the continental attraction the team has till date.
Carl Enow Ngatchu literally picked up the team from nowhere,worked with a shoestring budget and gave it a place on global stage.
Carl Enow Ngatchu was the soul of the team.He related incredibly well with his girls .Passion and purpose constituted the Mantra.Those mattered more than every other thing else.
Ngatchu’s Lionesses had nothing close to the luxury of the current times.Occasionally,they will even board taxis to the training grounds.
They had a vision and they remained steadfast.
There was very steady progress and the results were there for all to see.
In 2011 ,he bagged gold at the All Africa Games,beating Nigeria at the final.
This was followed by qualification for the London Olympics ,and silver medal at the 2014 AWCON.
He then led the team to the 2015 World Cup in Canada where they will gain global admiration through scintillating performances that got them to the knock-out phase.
Then came 2016.Cameroon hosted the women’s AFCON at a time when the men’s team was a shadow of itself leaving a void in the hearts of football -crazy Cameroonians.
Enow Ngatchu’s Lionesses stood the gap impeccably,only losing marginally to Nigeria in the final.
In 2017,he was then appointed the General Manager of the National Football Academy,ANAFOOT ,and the Baton of head coach of the Indomitable Lionesses was handed over to Joseph Ndoko.
Ndoko will only be able to guide the team to a third place finish at the 2018 AWCON in Ghana.
His spell will be deemed unimpressive and he would be sacked months before the 2019 World Cup ,and replace by Allain Njumfa in January 2019.
Njumfa led the Lionesses to the knock-out phase of the World Cup,but a poor run of form including the Olympics play-off loss to Chile later on led to his sacking in June 2021.
Then came Gabriel Zobo,he was given a baptism of fire at the 2021 Ashia Buhari cup during which Cameroon failed to register a single point or goal.
He then led the team to the quarter finals of the AWCON eventually qualifying for the 2023 World Cup play-offs.A defeat to Portugal would however snatch the world cup dream from grasp of the Lionesses.
Under the reign of current coach Jean Baptiste Bisseck ,the Lionesses have hit rock bottom,falling to qualify for the 2024 AWCON and 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
It looked like the lionesses need to start all over again.
Carl Enow Ngatchu is simply irreplaceable at the helm of the Senior Women’s National Football Team of Cameroon.
