Emilio Nsue These weeks he has experienced a second youth that, surely, he never dreamed of. Already 34 years old, he is advancing his career at Intercity in Alicante, in First Division. RFEFthe Spanish-Guinean striker managed to become, against all odds, the top scorer of the Africa Cup. However, two days after posing smiling with his trophy, the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation has informed him of his expulsion from its team “until further notice.”
In a resolution signed by its secretary general, Juan Antonio Nguemathe Equatoguinean Federation decrees the expulsion of the footballer born in Mallorca “for incurring several episodes of indiscipline before, during and after of the team’s participation” in the recently concluded Africa Cup, won by the Ivory Coast in the final against Nigeria.
In addition to Nsue, the Federation has also suspended Iván Salvador Eduborn in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) by a “unpleasant incident” during the Africa Cup, which required the intervention of the Ivorian police and which “caused a notable delay in the return of the team to Equatorial Guinea”, in addition to “a degradation in the reputation” of the country and the Equatorial Guinean team, as stated reflected in the writing made public by the X MundoGuinea1 account.
Nsue, a national hero, scored five goals during the group stage of the Africa Cup, three of them against Cape Verde, which helped him finish the tournament as top scorer, ahead of world-class stars such as Mo Salah or Sadio Mané. Equatorial Guinea was eliminated from the tournament in the round of 16 by Guinea Conakry.
The background of the expulsion
Last November, Nsue, as captain, led a protest by the majority of the national team’s footballers against the country’s Sports Minister, Patricio Bakale Mba, for having made “serious accusations” against them. He reproached them that “they cannot be blackmailing their State at crucial moments.”
The footballers demanded improvements in their conditions, including the hiring of a specialist in sports medicine, and in their communication they made it clear that the president and dictator of the country, Teodoro Obiangwas not considered guilty of the situation by the footballers.
The dictator himself has used his team as a propaganda element towards the Equatorial Guinean people. The victory against the Ivory Coast that qualified the Nzalang (the nickname of the team) led Obiang to decree a “day off work” for the nation, in addition to promising the players “a bonus of one million euros.”