After Benjamin Massing, another Ex-Indomitable Lion Dies

Cameroon has once more lost one of its football icons who played with its darling national football selection, the indomitable Lions.

Onana Eloundou Elie, died recently after successfully writing his name in the beautiful pages of the country’s football history.

His death comes four months after that of another proverbial and legendary former indomitable Lion Benjamin Massing.

Onana, was part of the Lions’ squad that participated in the 1982 Fifa world cup in Spain.

Onana Eloundou Elie, died in Yaoundé during the night of Sunday April 1, 2018 breaking Monday, April 02, from an illness. He died at the age of 67 years.

The career of this Cameroonian soccer icon began as Goalkeeper and then central defender in the late 1960s with Santos of Okala, then D3 club of the Centre Region.

His talent prompted the leading clubs of the national division one championship of Cameroon to seek his services. He then agreed a contract with a club in Bafia, which had just been admitted to the first division at the end of the 1972/73 sports season.

Four years later, Onana Eloundou Elie joined Federal of Foumban, the legendary club of the Noun division in the West Region. It was here that the man fondly referred to as “Iron Hammer” built the most beautiful memory of his career crowned by a call up to national team for the World Cup Spain 1982 and a nickname "Panka", which is an honorific title of the Bamoun fondom.

At the height of his glory, he decided against all odds to leave Foumban for Canon of Yaoundé, the team with which he won a Cameroon Cup title in 1983 and a title of champions of Cameroon in 1985.

A season after having won with the indomitable Lions, CAN Abidjan 1984, “Panka” then ended his amateur football career in Santos of Yaoundé in the late 1980s.

Before his death, Elie Onana Eloundou served with the penitentiary administration of Cameroon which he joined immediately after his football career. He retired from the penitentiary in 2001.

He leaves behind a family of six children and a wife to mourn him.