Théophile Abega Mbida (9 July 1954 – 15 November 2012), nicknamed Doctor, was 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 c ...

player and politician. Playing as a midfielder he was part of the Cameroon national football team, playing all three matches at the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

and captaining the side to their first

African Nations Cup 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 internati ...

victory in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, where he scored a goal in the final. He was nicknamed "The Doctor" in tribute to his footballing intelligence.

Club career

Abega started his career with Lion de Yaoundé and after with Colombe Sportive du Dja et Lobo. After, he played club football for

Canon Yaoundé Canon Sportif de Yaoundé, commonly known as Canon Yaoundé, is a Cameroonian association football club based in capital city of Yaoundé. The club was formed in 1930 and play their games at Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo. Their most successful period was ...

where he won the

1978 African Cup of Champions Clubs The 1978 African Cup of Champions Clubs was the 14th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CAF region (Africa), the African Cup of Champions Clubs. It determined that year's club champion of the association fo ...

1980 African Cup of Champions Clubs The 1980 African Cup of Champions Clubs was the 16th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CAF region (Africa), the African Cup of Champions Clubs. It determined that year's club champion of association footbal ...

and

1979 African Cup Winners' Cup The 1978 season of the African Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Canon Yaoundé in two-legged final victory against Gor Mahia. This was the fifth season that the tournament took place for the winners of each African country's do ...

titles as well as four Cameroonian championships and five Cameroonian Cups. Later in his career, he moved to France to play for

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

before finishing in Switzerland with Vevey.

International career

Following a collision with Zambian goalkeeper Efford Chabala at the

1986 African Cup of Nations The 1986 African Cup of Nations was the 15th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, a football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Egypt. Just like in 1984, the field of eight teams was split into two groups of four. Egypt won its third ...

Abega retired from football in 1987. Abega then went into politics, becoming the mayor of the sixth arrondissement of Yaoundé. In 2006, he was selected by CAF as one of the best 200 African football players of the last 50 years.

Death

Abega died of cardiac arrest at

Yaoundé General Hospital The Yaoundé General Hospital (Hôpital Général de Yaoundé - HGY) is a hospital in Yaoundé, Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a cou ...

, Yaoundé, Cameroon on 15 November 2012.

References

External links

* * * 1954 births 2012 deaths Association football midfielders Cameroonian footballers Cameroon international footballers Cameroonian expatriate footballers Olympic footballers of Cameroon Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1982 African Cup of Nations players 1984 African Cup of Nations players 1986 African Cup of Nations players Toulouse FC players Ligue 1 players Canon Yaoundé players Expatriate footballers in France Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in France African Footballer of the Year winners Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Mayors of places in Cameroon {{Cameroon-footy-midfielder-stub