Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach Manqoba Mngqithi has slammed Andre Onana’s decision to arrive late ahead of Cameroon’s Africa Cup of Nations opener.
Onana, 27, featured for his club, Manchester United in their 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday evening, less than 24 hours before Cameroon kick off their tournament against Guinea.
The goalkeeper has since jumped on a private plan to Ivory Coast, so he can make his country’s first game after being given special permission to arrive late.
But Mngqithi has not been impressed with Onana’s conduct ahead of the tournament, saying he’s disrespecting his federation and teammates by putting his club first.
“I think this boils down to our federations and our players,” he argued on SABC3.
“Because if as a player you respect your country, you respect your teammates, you respect everything that has to do with your federation, it does even need to go to a point of asking your federation to give you a chance – that’s already for me a sign of disrespect of the rest of the group.
“Because if everybody else is meeting on a particular date, regardless where you are playing you must respect that.
“Other players have done it before and it’s expected that our federations and our countries must be respected the same way European countries want to be respected when it’s the Euros.”
Cameroon face Guinea at the Stade Charles Konan Banny de Yamoussoukro at 19:00 in their Group C opener on Monday.
