List of naturalised Equatoguinean international football players

The Equatorial Guinea national football association has naturalised numerous foreign football players who have since played for the national team. This has drawn criticism from opposing nations on the grounds that many of the players had no previous ties to the country and that the decision was taken simply to improve the quality of the team.

The naturalised players are mainly from Brazil, Cameroon and Colombia, with the remainder coming from other West African states. Some players have taken on modified names, mirroring the conventions of the country's ethnic groups. Players are often given financial incentives to both naturalise and appear in the national team. The naturalisations involve players in both the men's and women's teams for Equatorial Guinea.

History

In October–November 2003, Equatorial Guinea's men team faced Togo for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. At that preliminary round, the Equatoguinean side -who was composed solely of native and Spanish-born descendant footballers- lost 1-2 to the Éperviers, whose coach was the Brazilian Antônio Dumas. He had an idea to include Black players of his natal country to represent Togo, despite they had not played in the Togolese League, nor had at least one of their parents or grandparents born in the West African nation. On the first match, in Bata, were used two Brazilian players (Hamílton Calheiros and Jeferson Souza «Mikimba»).^[1] Equatoguinean football personalities saw the formula of Dumas, ignoring its illegality, and, instead of denouncing Togo, decided to hire the Brazilian as its new coach and implement this trick.

In 2009, South African journalist Mark Gleeson wrote that CAF and FIFA overlook the incidents as they are low profile.^[2]

In October 2011, the situation was highlighted on the BBC World Service.^[3]

French coach Henri Michel said that he would not naturalise players excessively and that it was important to keep an Equatoguinean identity.^[4] He later resigned from his position as Equatorial Guinea's head coach twice (October and December 2012) citing "external interference".

When Equatorial Guinea hosted the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012, twelve of the players in the squad were naturalised Equatoguineans.^[5] Zambia coach Herve Renard called on the football governing bodies to crack down on the fielding of ineligible naturalised players.^[6]

In 2012, having lost the first leg of a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualification round 4-0 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea recruited nine Brazilian players to help overturn the deficit for the second leg. Democratic Republic of the Congo head coach Claude Le Roy complained that the Equatorial Guinea were acting like the United Nations of football.^[7]

Both the current Minister of Sports of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Pascual Obama Eyegue Asue, and Ruslan Obiang Nsue, the President Teodoro Obiang's son related to sports issues, have responsibility in this matter.^[8][9] In October 2013, an independent Equatoguinean newspaper accused the Brazilian coach Antônio Dumas, who worked with the team between 2004 and 2006, that he was the initiator of this situation, given that six Brazilian players had played for Togo in 2003, when he was their coach.^[10]

When the Spanish coach Andoni Goikoetxea reached Malabo in March to take the coaching of the men's team, he found that the call for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Cape Verde was already made. It included nine Brazilian players again.^[11]

As a disguise, the Equatoguinean press changes the name of the naturalized players, putting them surnames that are consistent with the country's ethnic groups. Thus, players such as Colombian Yoiver González Mosquera and Brazilian Luiz de Paula Neto and Jônatas Paulino da Silva Inácio are called Zeiver Gonzales Ondo (Ondo is a Fang surname), Luis de Pablo Buechebu (Buechebu doesn't exist as such, pretends to be a Bubi surname) and Jonatas Asumu Mebaha (Asumu Mebaha are Fang).^[12] Also, the players themselves try to justify, when they are consulted, their calls to Equatorial Guinea. Colombian footballer Rolan de la Cruz argued he has relatives living in Equatorial Guinea, while his compatriot Danny Quendambú has alluded to his surname, which is derived from the African.^[13]

This group of foreign footballers are motivated to represent Equatorial Guinea due in part to money offered by Equatoguinean politicians operating in national sport. One of the players involved in this move, André Neles, revealed that he received US$ 200,000 for becoming a naturalized Equatoguinean and would receive US$10,000 for every game played in the national team.^[14] Another footballer, the Colombian-born Ecuadorian-based Jimmy Bermúdez, will receive €3,000 for each match he plays.^[15] Colombian newspaper El Tiempo estimated that De la Cruz and Quendambú receive more than 10 million pesos (about 4,000 euros) per match played.^[13]

This phenomenon occurs not only in the men's team, but also in the female. In fact, the recent successes of the «Nzalang Femenino» –three African Championship finals (won two of them) and qualifying for the Women's World Cup 2011– are related to the inclusion of Brazilian players since the 2008 African Championship.

By way of justification, Jade Boho said: «The naturalized we are because we have African roots».^[16] She actually does not belong to the naturalised group, because although born and raised in Spain, she qualified by Equatorial Guinea because her father was born there.^[17] Another excuse, this time from Eyegue Asue, is that they have modern stadiums, good facilities, but require a physical structure, of people.^[8]

As of 2016, the Equatorial Guinean women's national football team still uses players in an irregular situation. Two clear cases are goalkeeper Ruth Sunday and defender Oluwatobiloba Windapo, who are originally from Nigeria and they play for Nigerian club Confluence Queens FC.^[18][19] However, they were naturalized and compete for Equatorial Guinea^[20] as Lucía Andeme Micha Mbengono and Susana Angono Ondo Oyana (both Andeme Micha Mbengono and Angono Ondo Oyana are Fang names).^[21][22] Not only their names were modified, but their ages. According to data based on their Nigerian documents, Sunday and Windapo were born in 1986,^[18][19] while Equatorial Guinea registered them in CAF as born in 1997 for they could compete in the 2015 African U-20 Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament.^[23][24]

Naturalised players

Brazil

• Adriano Pereira dos Santos^[25]
• Aldir Rodrigues Nascimento Junior (Aldir)
• Alexandre de Oliveira Honorato (Amaral)
• Anderson Ferreira
• André Neles
• Bruna Amarante da Silva (W)
• Camila do Carmo Nobre de Oliveira (Camila Nobre) (W)
• Carlos César Mateus (Carlinhos)^[25]
• Carolina Conceição Martins Pereira (Carol Carioca) (W)
• Jussara Souza Neves (Cisne) (W)^[26]
• Ana Cristina da Silva (Cris) (W)^[26]
• Daniel Martins
• Emmanuel Danilo Clementino Silva (Danilo)^[25]
• Ana Lúcia Nascimento dos Santos (Dida) (W)
• Diouzer da Cruz dos Santos (Dio)^[25]
• Adriana Soares Parente (Drika) (W)^[26]
• Dúlcia Maria Davi (Dulce) (W)^[26]
• Eduardo Soares Ferreira
• Fernando Alves dos Santos^[25]
• Floriano Claudino de Souza (Floriano)^[25]
• Jailton Eduardo da Silva (Jaílton)
• Jônatas Paulino da Silva Inácio (Jônatas Obina)
• Judson Augusto do Bonfim Santos (Judson)^[25]
• Jumária Barbosa de Santana (Jumária/Ju) (W)
• Leonardo Santa Rita Quirino (Léo Quirino)
• Mariana da Silva Machado (Mari) (W)^[26]
• Mirian Silva da Paixão (W)^[26]
• Mauricio de Alencar Alves (Mauricio)^[25]
• Ygor da Silva (Nena)^[25]
• Luiz de Paula Neto (Neto)^[25]
• Edvânia Miranda da Silva (Ninha) (W)^[26]
• Eduardo Santos Thomaz (Portela)^[25]
• Ricardinho^[25]
• Claudiney Ramos (Rincón) † ^[25]
• Ronan Carolino Falcão^[25]
• Etelvino Bomfim dos Santos (Téo/Theo)
• Adriana Aparecida Costa (Tiga/Tiganinha) (W)^[26]
• Vânia Cristina Martins (W)
• Willian da Silva Gomes dos Santos (Willian)^[25]

Burkina Faso

• Tou Awa (W)
• Yao Awa (W)
• Bilguissa Simporé (W)
• Salimata Simporé (W)

Cameroon

• Linda Mendoua Abessolo (W)
• Ibrahim Agbo
• Franklin Bama Yangoua^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• Christian Bon
• Éric Batinga
• Téclaire Bille † (W)
• Serges Bobiongono
• Lætitia Chapeh (W)
• Dorine Chuigoué (W)
• Narcisse Ekanga
• Viera Ellong
• Thierry Fidjeu
• Samuel Itondo
• Francis Mbome
• Annette Jacky Messomo
• Lucien Moutassie
• Patrick Mvondo
• Jean-Maxime Ndongo
• Ghyslaine Nke (W)
• Valéry Ntenfa †
• Christelle Nyepel (W)
• Achille Pensy
• Manuel Sima
• Pauline Tala (W)
• Doceline Theolore (W)

Colombia

• Carlos Bejarano
• Jimmy Bermúdez
• Mike Campaz
• Fernelly Castillo
• Rolan de la Cruz
• Jhonnier González
• Yoiver González
• Mauricio Mina
• Danny Quendambú
• César Rivas

Congo

• Jonathan Mbou^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Olivia Katsongo Nikieni (W)

Ghana

• Oscar Amoabeng
• Seth Appiah^[27]
• Baba Issaka^[28]

Ivory Coast

• Lato Ekanza
• Ben Konaté
• Fousseny Kamissoko

Liberia

• Lawrence Doe

Mali

• Fatoumata Ndiaye (W)

Nigeria

• Anita Amarachi (W)
• Blessing Diala (W)
• Daniel Ekedo
• Aju Francisca (W)^{[lower-alpha 3]}
• Uzoamaka Igwe (W)^{[lower-alpha 4]}
• Gloria Chinasa (W)
• Kelvin Onosiughe
• Ruth Sunday (W)^{[lower-alpha 5]}
• Oluwatobiloba Windapo (W)^{[lower-alpha 6]}

Senegal

• Abdoulaye Ndoye
• Mamadou Baldé
• Biranna Diop
• El Hadji Ibrahim Touré

Spain/Cape Verde

• Rui Da Gracia (Spanish-born to Cape Verdean parents)

Spain/Ivory Coast

• Yago Alonso-Fueyo Sako (Ivorian-born to a Spanish father and an Ivorian mother)

(W): For the women's team.

Notes

References