Roger Milla

Albert Roger Miller (born 20 May 1952), known as Roger Milla, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He was one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage.

He played in three World Cups for the Cameroon national team.

He signed up for the top division club Léopard Douala in 1970 at the age of 18 and eventually went onto win three Cameroonian championship titles with the club.

He also scored a tally of 89 goals in 116 appearances for Léopard Douala during a tenure of four years.

He subsequently moved to Tonnerre Yaoundé in 1974 four years after the successful stint with Léopard Douala.

He won the African Cup Winners' Cup with Tonnerre Yaoundé and for Tonnerre Yaoundé club he scored 69 goals in 87 games.

He moved to France at the age of 25 in 1977 where he spent 12 years of his career playing for various clubs.

In 1977, he was lured to Europe by the French club Valenciennes.

There he scored 6 goals in 28 league games over two seasons.

In 1979, he joined AS Monaco, where he won the 1980 French Cup and scored 5 goals in 25 league and cup games.

He had endured multiple injury concerns during his short stay and his team management decided to release him at the end of the season.

The next year, he joined Bastia, where he spent four seasons.

Milla scored 42 goals in 133 competitive matches and was instrumental in assisting the club to win the 1981 French Cup.

He next moved to Saint-Etienne in 1984 and became a crucial member of the club, which was recovering from the aftermath of a massive bribery scandal in 1982 and the subsequent relegation to Division 2, having had to sell out most of its first-choice players.

He achieved international stardom at 38 years old, an age at which most forwards have retired, by scoring four goals at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and thus becoming the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history.

He helped Cameroon become the first African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

Four years later, at the age of 42, Milla broke his own record as the oldest goalscorer in World Cup by scoring against Russia in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Milla frequently celebrated goals by running to the corner flag and performing a dance similar to the lambada.

In 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.

In 2007, the Confederation of African Football named Milla the best African player of the previous 50 years.

At the time of his retirement, he was regarded as the all-time topscorer from African region in FIFA World Cup finals with five goals and his record was eventually surpassed by Ghana's Asamoah Gyan.

His birth certificate as well as his passport implies his name as Roger Miller due to a clerical error and misunderstanding.

His parents wanted to give him the surname of his uncle 'Milla' by the time he was born.

He was often referred to as Miller whenever he featured in high-profile international matches with World Cup statistical sheets referring to him as Miller speaks volume of how far his name had been mispronounced and wrongly heard in international community.

His family moved to Douala when he was 11.

His father worked on the railroads and Milla had the fortune of travelling all over the nation on many occasions in his childhood.

He was raised up in the streets of Yaoundé and he hailed from a typical middle-class family so that his parents were able to provide him a satisfactory education.

However, his parents were unhappy when they noticed that Milla was going after football and they were initially reluctant to accept their son playing the sport of football.

He learnt the art of playing football by playing barefoot with fellow kids on dirt streets and roads and in most of the occasions he played with an orange or a tin can as an alternate option for a ball.

He also had the habit of kicking lemons and rags tied together into balls.

He along with other children had to play in dusty courts since Cameroon had not yet established children soccer academies at that time and Cameroon did not have the luxury of well maintained fields nor did they afford to have licensed coaches.

It was revealed that Milla played football solely for leisure, fun and entertainment purposes and did not think seriously of making it as his career and he went onto polish his football skills during school vacations.

Roger Milla himself said that he had finished high school but his claim has been refuted by some Cameroonian writers.

He has three brothers with different surnames such as Joseph Debouba, Jacques Edjanque and Alexandre Diboussi.

He nearly quit the sport after his mother's untimely death at home during the time when he played soccer in a distant arena and also due to his wife had become pregnant as the couple were awaiting for their second child.

He played for Eclair de Douala's junior team at the age of 13 and engaged exclusively in school tournaments.

He later convinced his parents following his impressive performances in age group category matches.

He made his debut for Eclair de Douala's senior team in the second division of the Cameroonian championship at the age of 15.

Two years later, aged 17, he became the Cameroonian schools high jump champion.