Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana has endured the most serious decline in his career, leading to him being left out of the Cameroon team participating in the African Football Cup.
This past summer, he moved to Turkish club Trabzonspor on loan after no longer being used under coach Ruben Amorim.
Although Onana has recently improved his form, that is still not enough to help him regain his position in the Cameroon national team. This goalkeeper has been removed from the list of participants in the upcoming AFCON African Football Cup.
The 29-year-old has played 53 times for the national team and played every minute of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, but in the end still could not participate in the AFCON. The tournament will open on December 21, and Cameroon will be in the same group as Gabon, Ivory Coast and Mozambique.
While Onana was left out, two other notable stars were on the list of 28 Cameroon players: Bryan Mbeumo (Man United) and Carlos Baleba (Brighton). Former Tottenham player and playing in Saudi Arabia, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, has also been called back.
Onana's departure came on a turbulent day for Cameroon, with manager Marc Brys sacked just days before the tournament started.
This season, Onana has made 11 appearances for Trabzonspor in all competitions. Although he was not called up to the national team, his performance at the club was considered good enough for Trabzonspor's board to decide to recruit him under a long-term contract.
At the start of the season, Amorim shared about his goalkeeper being on loan: "We saw Andre Onana have had a very, very good season at Inter Milan. Quality is obvious. But we are part of the club, and sometimes, for the moment, things can get more and more difficult.
You can be experienced, but at this club, the pressure is sometimes on every detail. I think we understand that we need to change. Sometimes it's hard to point out the reason - it's the performance, the moments.
Luck in some situations has affected him, as well as affected us. We think there needs to be a change in the goalkeeper position".
Onana started his career at Ajax in the Netherlands before moving to Inter Milan, a giant Italian team, where he became one of the best goalkeepers in Europe.
Onana's form is good enough to convince Man United to spend £43 million to recruit him in 2023. Onana has spent two seasons as the "Red Devils' number one goalkeeper," although sometimes catastrophic mistakes overshadowed his performance at Old Trafford.
Onana was eventually allowed to leave the club this summer and replaced by Senne Lammens, who joined Man United from Royal Antwerp. The Belgian goalkeeper had a bright start at Old Trafford, despite only keeping a clean sheet once in the opening 7 matches.
