The next year, he joined Bastia, where he spent four seasons. He had endured multiple injury concerns during his short stay and his team management decided to release him at the end of the season. In 1979, he joined AS Monaco, where he won the 1980 French Cup and scored 5 goals in 25 league and cup games. There he scored 6 goals in 28 league games over two seasons. In 1977, he was lured to Europe by the French club Valenciennes. He moved to France at the age of 25 in 1977 where he spent 12 years of his career playing for various clubs. He won the African Cup Winners' Cup with Tonnerre Yaoundé and for Tonnerre Yaoundé club he scored 69 goals in 87 games. He subsequently moved to Tonnerre Yaoundé in 1974 four years after the successful stint with Léopard Douala. He also scored a tally of 89 goals in 116 appearances for Léopard Douala during a tenure of four years. 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. Two years later, aged 17, he became the Cameroonian schools high jump champion. He made his debut for Eclair de Douala's senior team in the second division of the Cameroonian championship at the age of 15. He later convinced his parents following his impressive performances in age group category matches. He played for Eclair de Douala's junior team at the age of 13 and engaged exclusively in school tournaments. 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 has three brothers with different surnames such as Joseph Debouba, Jacques Edjanque and Alexandre Diboussi. Roger Milla himself said that he had finished high school but his claim has been refuted by some Cameroonian writers. 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. 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. He also had the habit of kicking lemons and rags tied together into balls. 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. 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 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. His father worked on the railroads and Milla had the fortune of travelling all over the nation on many occasions in his childhood. His family moved to Douala when he was 11. 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 parents wanted to give him the surname of his uncle 'Milla' by the time he was born. ![]() ![]() His birth certificate as well as his passport implies his name as Roger Miller due to a clerical error and misunderstanding. 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. In 2007, the Confederation of African Football named Milla the best African player of the previous 50 years. In 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. ![]() Milla frequently celebrated goals by running to the corner flag and performing a dance similar to the lambada. 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. He helped Cameroon become the first African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals. 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 played in three World Cups for the Cameroon national team. He was one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage. *Club domestic league appearances and goalsĪlbert Roger Miller (born ), known as Roger Milla, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a forward.
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