​Cameroon's president ordered the retired Milla be taken to Italy 1990

He broke Gunnar Gren's record as the World Cup's oldest marksman

Milla then smashed his own record in California "To be honest, I found it so natural that I'm not natural.” This was how Roger Milla reflected on the extraordinary feats that punctuated his late 30s and early 40s. The Cameroonian icon made history at two separate FIFA World Cups™, becoming the tournament’s oldest-ever goalscorer in 1990 and then breaking his own record four years later at the ripe old age of 42. In that latter tournament, he was playing alongside and against men who hadn’t even been born when, 21-and-a-half years earlier, he had scored his first international goal in a World Cup qualifier against Zaire. Some of those colleagues and opponents had still been in nappies, in fact, when Milla won his first African Footballer of the Year award in 1976. But despite those early achievements, and a distinguished club career in France, it was only at an age when most players have long since hung up their boots that the striker became a household name.

The Player

When the Confederation of African Football (CAF) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007, the organisation polled the public for the continent’s best player over those five decades. Milla took home the prize. Such an honour would have been unthinkable in the late ‘80s, when the journeyman striker – having failed to add to that 1976 African Football of the Year award – retired from the professional game to live and play amateur football on the island of Reunion. But though Cameroon’s Russian coach, Valeri Nepomniatchi, understandably had no thoughts of calling on this 38-year-old retiree for the 1990 World Cup, that all changed when the country’s president, Paul Biya, issued a fateful order. Biya insisted that Milla be included and called the player personally to ensure his cooperation. “I think he (Biya) was not a bad coach,” a smiling Milla would later reflect. Though controversial and far from universally popular in the Cameroon squad, the decision to enlist the veteran striker's services proved inspired. Despite not starting a single match at Italy 1990, Milla emerged as one of the tournament’s undoubted stars, with four goals – and the makossa dance celebration that followed them – propelling him to global stardom. Such was his status after that tournament, in fact, that he was once more recalled to the national team in 1994 at the age of 42. Again, he responded as only Milla could.

When Rene met Roger 🇨🇴🆚🇨🇲 #WorldCup 1990 "So much of the criticism was unfair" // "Creo que fue injusta tanta crítica" 🧤 Rene Higuita La famosa acción con Roger Milla en #Italia1990, su particular manera de atajar o las chances de 🇨🇴 Selección Colombia - FCFSeleccionCol en #Rusia2018, este martes en exclusiva. Posted by FIFA World Cup on Monday, 23 April 2018