He is one of the star recruits of the summer and a star for club and country. However, he could refuse to play the next international competition with his national team.
He was one of his club’s biggest investments this summer. Having arrived to become a key player in the squad, thanks to the unfailing confidence of his coach who knew him well, it was one of the big failures at the start of the season. While he recently qualified for a major continental competition with his selection, he could ultimately choose to concentrate on his club and not participate in this major event! The player is said to be so determined to succeed at his new club that he wishes he didn’t take any time off.
Since signing for Manchester United, he has not always satisfied with his performances. However, coach Erik Ten Hag continues to place his trust in him after giving him the starting job. The task is difficult: he must replace David De Gea, voted best goalkeeper in the Premier League last year.
This is obviously the Cameroonian André Onana, recruited from Inter Milan for more than 50 million euros during the last transfer window, notably for the quality of his kicking game. His performances are not always up to par at the start of the season, even if he is not helped by a fragile and clumsy defense in restarts. The penalty saved in the Champions League at the end of October against Copenhagen is a meager bright spot.
To show his dedication to his club, Onana would like to stay with his teammates in January, even if it means missing the Africa Cup of Nations, the biggest African competition. He must theoretically dispute it with Cameroon. New episode in a complex story with his selection: excluded from the Cameroonian group during the 2022 World Cup for disciplinary reasons, Onana had announced his international retirement, but he has just returned after being recalled for the last qualifying match against Burundi.
He could therefore leave his national team again, temporarily or not. According to information from the Daily Mail, he told his coach Erik Ten Hag that he did not intend to play again with the national team and that he was reluctant to play in the CAN at the start of the year 2024. The Cameroonian goalkeeper would like to thank the Dutch technician, whom he had already known at Ajax, for his unfailing confidence after his errors against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray in the Champions League.
According to ESPN, the goalkeeper also told Erik Ten Hag, during contract negotiations this summer, that it was unlikely that he would play for the team again. He finally agreed to return this fall, after nine months of absence, under pressure from the Cameroonian Federation and the government. If he were to play in CAN 2024, André Onana could miss four league matches, but also the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup and an FA Cup match if Manchester United qualifies in these competitions.
