The 1980 African Ballon d’Or winner Jean Manga Onguéné died on October 6, 2026, in Paris. Canon de Yaoundé confirmed the death of their former captain.
Anna MBEUMOView all articles
On 7 Oct 2026 at 06:56
Updated 7 Oct 2026
FOOTBALL
Jean Manga Onguéné, the 1980 African Ballon d’Or winner and a prominent figure in Cameroonian football, passed away on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, in Paris. He was 80 years old.
His lifelong club, Canon Sportif de Yaoundé, confirmed his death in a statement released the same day. The Cameroonian team honored the forward, who spent his entire career with them, describing him as one of the greatest African goal scorers in history.
Born on June 12, 1946, in Ngoulemakong, Jean Manga Onguéné joined Canon in the 1960s. With the Yaoundé club, he won six Cameroonian championships, six national cups, three African Champions Cups, and one African Cup Winners’ Cup.
His year 1980 marked the pinnacle of his career. As captain and center forward of Canon, he notably scored three goals in the return leg of the African Champions Cup final, which they won 3-0 against AS Bilima in Kinshasa. This season earned him the African Ballon d’Or awarded by France Football.
A Cameroonian international for over a decade, the forward participated in the Africa Cup of Nations in 1970 and 1972. A knee injury sidelined him from the 1982 World Cup, where he was set to captain the Indomitable Lions.
After retiring as a player, Manga Onguéné transitioned to coaching. He was part of the Cameroonian staff during their run to the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, before leading the national under-20 team to the African title in 1995.
He also managed the senior national team during the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso, and later served as the national technical director and an instructor for FIFA and the African Football Confederation.
