Cameroon win Olympic gold with a comeback against nine-man Spain (Sydney 2000)
Cameroon Olympic gold was won on Saturday 30 September 2000 at Stadium Australia in Sydney, where the men’s final finished Spain 2-2 Cameroon after extra time and Cameroon took the shootout 5-3. Xavi scored inside two minutes and Gabri made it 2-0 in first-half stoppage time. An Ivan Amaya own goal on 53 minutes and Samuel Eto’o on 58 hauled Cameroon level, and Spain finished the neutral-venue final with nine men.
A 16-year-old goalkeeper, two Spanish red cards and one crossbar decided that Olympic title, and half the internet still dates it to the wrong day.
Key Facts
- Played Saturday 30 September 2000 at Stadium Australia, Sydney, kicking off at midday, as the gold medal match of the Sydney 2000 men’s Olympic tournament.
- The result was Spain 2-2 Cameroon after extra time, 2-0 at the interval, with Cameroon winning the shootout 5-3 on neutral ground.
- Xavi scored on 2 minutes and Gabri on 45+2; Ivan Amaya’s own goal on 53 and Samuel Eto’o on 58 levelled it inside normal time.
- Spain finished with nine men: Gabri was sent off on 70 minutes and Jose Mari on 91.
- Cameroon converted all five penalties, through Patrick Mboma, Eto’o, Geremi, Lauren and Pierre Wome. Spain took only four, and Amaya’s struck the bar.
- The crowd was 104,098, also recorded as 104,000 and, in one count, 98,212. Felipe de Jesus Ramos Rizo of Mexico refereed, with Saad Kameel Mane of Kuwait as fourth official.
- Cameroon’s goalkeeper Idriss Carlos Kameni was 16, born in Douala on 18 February 1984.
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How Cameroon Won the Sydney 2000 Olympic Final
Two Goals Down Before Half-Time
Cameroon arrived at Stadium Australia having already removed the tournament’s glamour side. Patrick Mboma scored on 17 minutes against Brazil in the Brisbane quarter-final and Ronaldinho answered in stoppage time, before Modeste Mbami settled it on 113 with a golden goal from 18 yards. Lauren then knocked Chile out from the penalty spot in Melbourne. Ronaldinho, beaten that night in Brisbane, turns up among our football mavericks films.
It should have been worse. In the fifth minute Aaron Nguimbat brought down Jose Mari, Ramos Rizo gave a penalty, and Miguel Angulo put it to the sixteen-year-old goalkeeper’s left. Idriss Carlos Kameni guessed right and held it. Spain would have been two up inside five minutes.
Spain still had them two down by half-time. The opener came after 78 seconds, logged as the second minute and finished by Xavi Hernandez. Jose Ignacio Saez Ruiz then withdrew Toni Velamazan on 27 minutes for Gabri, a change that looked like damage control and produced the second goal in first-half stoppage time, on 45+2.
Amaya’s Own Goal and Eto’o on 58
Cameroon had rehearsed this. Seven months earlier, in the Africa Cup of Nations final in Nigeria, they had thrown away a 2-0 lead of their own and still won the shootout. In Sydney the roles reversed. Daniel Kome came on for Aaron Nguimbat at half-time, and the correction took five minutes. Ivan Amaya turned the ball past his own goalkeeper on 53, and Samuel Eto’o levelled on 58.
A widely circulated version has Cameroon equalising in extra time. In fact both goals came inside normal time. The score was 2-0 at the break and 2-2 at full-time, and extra time produced nothing.
| Minute | Scorer | Counts for | Score (Spain first) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Xavi | Spain | 1-0 |
| 45+2 | Gabri | Spain | 2-0 |
| 53 | Ivan Amaya (own goal) | Cameroon | 2-1 |
| 58 | Samuel Eto’o | Cameroon | 2-2 |
Spain Down to Nine, and Thirty Goalless Minutes
Then Spain unravelled, and it started with the man who had put them 2-0 up. Gabri was sent off on 70 minutes and Jose Mari followed on 91, a second yellow after a booking on 55. Saez Ruiz had used all three substitutions by the 74th minute, so Spain finished normal time with nine men and played the whole of extra time two short.
Extra time ran under the golden goal, the rule that had already settled the Brazil quarter-final in Cameroon’s favour. Thirty minutes against nine men produced no winner. Jean-Paul Akono’s side had been chasing since the second minute and could not finish a side two men short.
The Shootout That Sealed Cameroon Olympic Gold
Five kicks, five goals. Cameroon converted all five and Spain three of four. The miss was Amaya’s third kick, which struck the crossbar rather than being saved. The defender who had turned the ball into his own net on 53 had now missed from twelve yards too.
| Order | Cameroon | Outcome | Spain | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Mboma | Scored | Xavi | Scored |
| 2 | Samuel Eto’o | Scored | Joan Capdevila | Scored |
| 3 | Geremi | Scored | Ivan Amaya | Missed |
| 4 | Lauren | Scored | David Albelda | Scored |
| 5 | Pierre Wome | Scored | Not required |
What Sydney Was Worth
Wome took the kick that finished it, and those five brought home Cameroon’s first Olympic football gold medal. They were the second African nation to win the men’s title, after Nigeria at Atlanta four years earlier. Lauren, who had just signed for Arsenal before flying out, put its value plainly: “it was for Cameroon and it was for Africa”.
The losing dressing room did rather well out of it too. Four of the Spain side, Xavi, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena and Joan Capdevila, were world champions ten years later. Patrick Suffo, an unused substitute that afternoon, told ESPN the squad “hadn’t necessarily gone to Sydney to win”. The same piece has him scoring four times on the way to that final, which is not right: all eleven of Cameroon’s tournament goals are accounted for and Suffo’s name is not among them. The four belong to Patrick Mboma, and the similarity of the two forwards’ names is the likeliest reason Suffo keeps being handed a goal in the final as well.
READ MORE: More finals, shootouts and comebacks in our On This Day series →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Cameroon’s 2000 Olympic Final
What was the score in the Spain v Cameroon Olympic final on 30 September 2000?
Spain 2-2 Cameroon after extra time, with Cameroon winning the shootout 5-3 for gold. Half-time was 2-0 to Spain. It was played at Stadium Australia in Sydney, a neutral venue, at midday.
Who scored in the Spain 2-2 Cameroon Olympic final in Sydney in 2000?
Xavi on 2 minutes and Gabri on 45+2 for Spain, then an own goal from Ivan Amaya on 53 and Samuel Eto’o on 58 for Cameroon. Both Cameroon goals came inside normal time.
Was the 2000 Olympic men’s football final played on 29 or 30 September?
30 September 2000, a Saturday. The final kicked off at 12:00 at Stadium Australia on 30 September. Databases that list 29 September follow a wire filing stamped 29 September at 22:00 and calling it a Friday night. That is what a midday Sydney kickoff looks like from the Americas, where it was still Friday evening. From Europe it was the small hours of Saturday morning, which points to the 30th rather than away from it.
How did the penalty shootout in the 2000 Olympic final between Spain and Cameroon finish?
Cameroon won it 5-3, scoring all five kicks to Spain’s three of four. Cameroon’s scorers were Patrick Mboma, Samuel Eto’o, Geremi, Lauren and Pierre Wome, and Spain’s were Xavi, Joan Capdevila and David Albelda. Ivan Amaya’s third kick struck the crossbar.
Did Patrick Suffo score for Cameroon in the Sydney Olympic final on 30 September 2000?
No. Cameroon’s goals came from Amaya’s own goal on 53 and Eto’o on 58, and Suffo is not credited with a goal in this final or anywhere else in the tournament. He was named among the substitutes, and Cameroon’s three changes that afternoon did not include him, so he did not come on.
Why did Spain finish the 2000 Olympic final against Cameroon with nine men?
Spain had Gabri sent off on 70 minutes, then Jose Mari on 91 for a second yellow. Saez Ruiz had used all three substitutions by the 74th minute, so he could not reshape the side. Spain played all of extra time two men short.
Was Cameroon Olympic gold in 2000 the first Olympic football gold won by an African nation?
No. Nigeria won the men’s Olympic football title at Atlanta 1996, four years before Cameroon beat Spain in Sydney. Cameroon’s win made it two consecutive Olympic titles for African sides, and was their own first gold medal in the sport.
How many people watched Spain versus Cameroon at Stadium Australia on 30 September 2000?
The crowd was 104,098. Some records round that to 104,000 and one puts it a little lower, at 98,212, but 104,098 is the accepted figure. It is often repeated as an Olympic football attendance record, though it is logged simply as the crowd for the final, without that billing.
Who was Cameroon’s goalkeeper in the 2000 Olympic final in Sydney, and how old was he?
Idriss Carlos Kameni, and he was 16. His date of birth is 18 February 1984 in Douala, making him 16 years and seven months on 30 September 2000. He was in goal for the whole tie, shootout included.
Did Xavi and Carles Puyol play for Spain against Cameroon in Sydney on 30 September 2000?
Yes. Both started for Spain in Sydney on 30 September 2000, with Xavi scoring on 2 minutes. Carlos Marchena also started and Joan Capdevila came on after 74 minutes. All four were world champions with Spain in 2010.
How did Cameroon reach the 2000 Olympic football final in Sydney?
Cameroon beat Brazil 2-1 after extra time in the quarter-final and Chile 2-1 in the semi-final. Modeste Mbami won the Brazil tie in Brisbane with a golden goal on 113 minutes from 18 yards in front of 37,332. Lauren settled the Melbourne semi-final from the penalty spot on 89 minutes.
Who refereed the Olympic football final between Spain and Cameroon on 30 September 2000?
Felipe de Jesus Ramos Rizo of Mexico. He sent off Gabri on 70 minutes and Jose Mari on 91, and the cautions went to David Albelda on 19, Patrice Abanda on 25 and Jose Mari on 55 and again on 91, with a late one also recorded for the Spain goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia. Cameroon then won the shootout 5-3.
Why does Cameroon Olympic gold in Sydney on 30 September 2000 still matter?
It was Cameroon’s first Olympic football gold medal, won against a Spain side that supplied four future world champions. The comeback from 2-0 down, in a crowd of 104,098, launched Samuel Eto’o and gave Idriss Carlos Kameni a gold medal at 16. Twenty years on, no African side had emulated it.
Cameroon Olympic Gold in Sydney (2000)
Two goals down inside 45 minutes, level by the 58th, then thirty goalless minutes against nine men and a defender who missed from twelve yards. For more days that rearranged a country’s football history, keep going through our On This Day series.
Sources: FIFA, Olympics.com, RSSSF, ESPN, Goal, Transfermarkt, athlet.org, BeSoccer.
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