Infos:
Despite his 36 years, Cameroon’s coach Jean Vincent had made the 1980 african golden boot, Jean-Manga Onguéné, his first choice for the center forward position, rather seeing Roger Milla as his No. 10. A bad injury during the training camp in Germany put an end to this hope. Onguéné said later in an interview : "The World Cup 1982. I had to go. I had to wear the captain's armband and I broke my leg. It would have been the apotheosis of my career, the opportunity to bid farewell in the biggest of our competitions. And with Roger (Milla), we could have scored goals. What a team we had … ”.
In 1982, Eugène Ekoule was considered by many to be the best n ° 9 in Cameroon, with the title of best African scorer in inter-club competitions, in the early 80s with 27 goals. Selected during Can 1982, Jean Vincent did not retain him when he was appointed coach after this competition. For some, Abega and M'bida, who wanted to favor their teammates from Canon Yaoundé, did not deliberately highlight Ekoulé by giving him bad passes.
Left Back, with an imposing physique, rough on the opposing winger and tackle specialist, winner, two years later, of the CAN 1984, Isaac Sinkot was not retained for Espana 82. In an interview, he will say that "my biggest regret was not to have been chosen for the 1982 World Cup. At the time, the leaders of the Douala Dynamo did not see the importance of a world cup and preferred to retain me as captain of the team, while I was physically and technically a good starter for this competition".