François Omam-Biyik (born 21 May 1966) is a Cameroonian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

manager and former player who works as assistant manager of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...

. Omam-Biyik also has French nationality. A forward, he was one of the most important players of the Cameroon national team in the nineties, playing at the three World Cups in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

. He played 73 international matches in total.

Early life

Omam-Biyik started out as a goalkeeper, and later a defender, before converting into a striker at the age of 16.

Club career

Omam-Biyik had success with different French clubs before moving to

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

in the summer of 1992. He only played one match, and was transferred to

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

in October 1992. After a few years he continued his career in Mexico with

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América or simply América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier ...

and

Puebla F.C. Club Puebla, formerly Puebla F.C. is a Mexican professional football club based in the city of Puebla, competing in the Liga MX. Known as ''La Franja'' ("The Striped Ones"), the team shirt features a diagonal stripe (traditionally blue on white ...

, with short stops in European clubs towards the late nineties. Omam-Biyik retired after the 1999–2000 season. In 1987 and 1991 he finished third in a run for an African Footballer of the Year award. In 2003, he played in the Adecmac amateur soccer league in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

with Club Deportivo Sahara, where he scored 10 goals in the season.

International career

Omam-Biyik's greatest moment came when he scored the downward header that gave Cameroon a historic 1–0 win over defending world champions

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in the

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in the opening match of the 1990 World Cup. He and his brother André helped Cameroon to the quarter-finals. He also scored against

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in the first round of the 1994 World Cup. He was called up to

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

, which was his third. Omam-Biyik scored a total of 26 goals in 73 appearances. He is Cameroon's record World Cup player, with 11 matches in three tournaments.

Style of play

Omam-Biyik's aerial ability led to the term "Omam-Biyik" being used as a nickname for a headed goal. While he took part in high jumping at school, he says he was "born" with his heading ability.

Managerial career

Following his retirement Omam-Biyik moved to Colima,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, where he was the head coach of the city's Second Division professional soccer team. Omam-Biyik was appointed assistant coach of the Indomitable Lions (Cameroon football team) for a two-year tenure, with Spaniard Javier Clemente as head coach. Omam-Biyik became the head coach of Togolese side

Gomido FC Gomido Football Club is a Togolese football club based in Kpalimé. They play in the first division in Togolese football. Their home stadium is Stade Municipal. Performance in CAF competitions *CAF Cup: 1 appearance ::1994 – First Round *We ...

in May 2013. He pledged to help rebuild the first team but worked with the club for just two months. On 20 July 2013, Omam-Biyik was signed to coach Gabonese champions Union Sportive de Bitam, replacing his compatriot Thomas Libiih. At the end of September 2019, Omam-Biyik was appointed assistant manager under newly hired manager Toni Conceição for

Personal life

He is the father of Emilio Omam-Biyik and cousin of Francis Eliezer Omam, both of whom are footballers. François' older brother, André, and André's son, Jean-Armel, are also footballers.

Honours

Lens *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France ...

: 1994 Cameroon *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

: 1988

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Omam-Biyik, Francois 1966 births Living people Association football forwards Cameroonian footballers Stade Lavallois players Stade Rennais F.C. players AS Cannes players Olympique de Marseille players RC Lens players LB Châteauroux players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Serie A players U.C. Sampdoria players Cameroonian expatriate footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in France Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Mexico French footballers Club América footballers Atlante F.C. footballers Club Puebla players Liga MX players Cameroon international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Africa Cup of Nations-winning players 1988 African Cup of Nations players 1990 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players 1996 African Cup of Nations players Cameroonian emigrants to France Canon Yaoundé players