MY ACCOUNT
Cameroon coach Rigobert Song made no secret of his pride in Breel Embolo despite the Switzerland forward scoring the winning goal against his birth nation at the World Cup on Thursday.
Embolo’s second-half strike from Xherdan Shaqiri’s cross proved decisive as Switzerland won 1-0 at Al Janoub Stadium, giving Switzerland a victorious start to their Group G campaign.
The goal was even more notable due to the fact Embolo was born in Cameroon but represents Switzerland after spending much of his childhood there.
Despite not choosing to play for the nation of his birth, Embolo retains links to the country and Song revealed the pair share a strong personal relationship.
As such, Song felt a degree of pride in seeing Embolo prevail on Thursday.
Asked if he had preferred Embolo to have played for Cameroon, Song told reporters: “Yes, but that’s the nature of the game.
“We are all proud of our country, you saw he didn’t celebrate his goal. But again this [players representing other countries] is part and parcel of football.
“I’m happy for him and proud of him. Because he’s playing for the Switzerland team, yes I’d have liked him on my side, but that’s not the way it went. That’s just the way of life.
“For us the most important thing is how we played, rather than who scored against us.”
Song and Embolo shared a warm embrace at full-time, with the former explaining it was important to greet the Monaco player as a show of respect.
“We know each other, he’s my little brother, I’m like the big brother, we’ve often spoken on the phone as well,” Song said.
“I wanted to congratulate him, it’s fair play. Because we are from the same family [country] but on different teams, it doesn’t mean we are not going to be on good terms.
“He had a good game, I wanted to tell him. I’m not going to be a sore loser, we’re still brothers at the end of the day.”
Switzerland boss Murat Yakin was less forthcoming than Song in general as he addressed the media afterwards, but he did express a hint of pleasure in the narrative behind Embolo’s goal.
“We know his story, his past in Cameroon,” he added. “Well, you can be friendly up to kick-off and then they are your opponents.
“[Embolo’s story] is football, it’s writing history, these stories. Of course, he wants to score for his team and he fulfilled his task, so we are very happy. He had good moments through the match. He fulfilled his task well.”
Switzerland face Brazil next on Monday, while Cameroon will hope to bounce back against Serbia the same day – another defeat will see them equal Mexico’s all-time record for the most successive World Cup losses (nine).
