Black History Month Players: Rigobert Song

As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link,  but this post and today's thread on X is on Rigobert Song. 

Born in Nkenglikok in Southern Cameroon on the 1st of July 1976, Song mostly grew up in a single-parent household after his father Paul died when he was very young. As a result, he never really knew his father but nevertheless dedicates all his success to him. This is because Song believes as his absence was a strong motivational force for him to live life to the fullest & to make his late father proud, which he did by deciding to play football.

Song’s career began with Tonnerre Yaoundé, in the capital city of Cameroon at the age of 16, impressing those in charge of the national team, with Song making his debut in a friendly against Mexico in September 1993 & was then selected to play in the 1994 World Cup at 17. As the youngest player at the World Cup in 1994, Song would play the first 2 games of Cameroon’s run in the tournament before being sent off in a game against eventual champions Brazil, giving him the unwanted record of being the youngest player to ever be sent off in a World Cup. However, a nicer record Song made at this World Cup was with teammate Roger Milla with the age difference between the 2 players of 24 years and 42 days age gap between Milla (42 years and 35 days) and Song (17 years and 358 days) is still a World Cup record to this day.

After a promising World Cup, Song was recruited by French side Metz, who gave him what is recognised as his professional debut in 1994. In 4 years with the French side, Song would make 123 appearances, scoring 3 goals before moving to Italy with Salernitana.

Before moving to Italy, Song would compete in his second World Cup in 1998, where once again he would be sent off, earning the unwanted record of being the 1st player to be sent off in 2 world cups. The other player to share this honour is Zinedine Zidane, sent off in 1998 & 2006.

Song’s time in Italy started very promising, scoring Salernitana’s first goal in Serie A for 50 years. But after a poor start to the season, Song was made the scapegoat for this and was frozen out of the side going forward before Liverpool came & saved Song in January 1999. With Liverpool spending £2.7 million to bring Song to England, Song repaid Liverpool rescuing him from Italy with committed performances, despite not regularly starting for the club. In 22 months with Liverpool, Song would make 34 appearances before joining West Ham in November 2000.

During this time with Liverpool, Song as Cameroon captain, would lead his national side to triumph in the 2000 African Cup of Nations when he scored the winning penalty in the final against Nigeria. He’d also led Cameroon to triumph in the following AFCON tournament in 2002.

But back to his club career… signing with West Ham in November 2000, Song was signed as a replacement for Rio Ferdinand, although Song himself found this to be degrading to his own talents, which wasn’t helped by the fact that Song was given Rio’s number 15 shirt.

Song would stay with the Hammers for 18 months, playing 27 games for the club. Sadly, this time was uninspiring & he would be frozen out of the club in September 2001 after a 5-0 loss to Everton, joining German side FC Koln on loan before leaving permanently to join Lens.

Joining Lens in 2002, Song became a key part of the Lens squad, playing regular football for the first time since he left Metz 4 years earlier. In 2 seasons with the French team, Song made 63 appearances, scoring 3 goals before moving to Turkey with Galatasaray. 

In 2003, Song would endure his saddest moment in football when his good friend & teammate Marc Vivien Foe sadly died on the pitch during a game in that year's confederations cup. Song led his country with utter class during this period, despite obviously mourning for his friend.

Galatasaray was the most successful period of Song’s club career, where he won 2 league titles and a Turkish cup in 4 years with the club, although his time in Turkey wasn’t always great after a falling out with then manager Eric Gerets saw Song isolated from the team for a while. However, by the time Song left, he was a cult hero for the club, becoming captain of the side in his final season before joining the second claret & blue team of his career in Trabzonspor in 2008.

Song would spend the final 2 years of his club career with Trabzonspor, becoming captain of the side in 2009, going on to end his club career on a high by winning another Turkish cup in 2010, before retiring after representing Cameroon one final time at the 2010 World Cup. Ending his career at this World Cup, Song retired as the record appearance holder for his country with 137 caps. However, this would not be the end of his involvement with the national team.

After a 5-year absence from football in which Song earned his coaching badges, he was approached to become manager of Chad’s national team, but instead, he took over the Cameroon ‘A’ team, a side made up of players playing their club football in Cameroon. However, Song’s reunion with the national team set up was almost cut short when in October 2016, he suffered a Cerebral haemorrhage or “brain bleed” as the result of a stroke & was in a coma for 2 days before thankfully pulling through and surviving, making a full recovery.

In an interview in 2017 after returning to work with the Cameroon ‘A’ team, Song said he felt that all of those who prayed for him to survive saved his life, adding that God would have been in trouble if he had died. Which begs the all-important question: Could Rigobert Song kick God’s ass?

Having sent God running scared, Song was promoted in 2018 to the manager of Cameroon’s Under-23 team following a brief spell as caretaker of the senior team. However, whether by good management or by threatening god again, Song became manager of the national team in February 2022. Song’s career as Cameroon manager got off to the most dramatic start imaginable when a playoff game against Algeria to decide who would make last year’s World Cup was settled with a 124th-minute winner and saw Cameroon make it to Qatar.

Despite having made it there by the slimmest of margins, Cameron would stun the world by beating the most successful World Cup history in Brazil 1-0 and would narrowly miss out on making the last 16. With African football really stamping its authority on the world stage last year with Morocco’s run to the semi-final, Song is now tasked with replicating that with Cameroon. With African football now a force to be reckoned with & Cameroon one of its stronger nations, the future looks bright for Song, who despite not showing his full potential at Upton Park, has established and is still establishing a rich career within football.

Thanks for reading today’s thread. Today’s sources were:

This interview with the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/24/rigobert-song-enjoys-his-rock-star-quality-as-cameroon-take-the-stage

This interview with goal (requires translation): https://www.goal.com/it/notizie/rigobert-song-meteora-alla-salernitana-tra-record-e-scampati-pericoli/1tr751slikzyw19g4bqr2rbsnu

And the interview with the BBC where he offers out god: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42109837