There had been tension between Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana and Cameroon coach Rigobert Song in the past several days leading up to the player’s withdrawal from his national team’s squad at the World Cup.
This according to Italian news outlet Gazzetta.it, who report that the 26-year-old and his coach had been having tactical disagreements since the aftermath of Cameroon’s opening day loss to Switzerland, and that these came to a head earlier today.
Onana was not included in the squad for Cameroon’s group stage match against Serbia today, having started in the opener against Switzerland.
Despite initial reports that this may have been due to disciplinary reasons, the actual issue between the Inter keeper and his coach concerned the tactical approach.
Onana is known for coming off his line and playing a high volume of shorter passes, whereas his coach Song was insistent upon longer goal kicks and staying on his line.
These disagreements did not only come about today, however, and the tension had in fact been building for several days, according to the Gazzetta.