Cameroon 0 France 1The Confederations Cup was billed as a glorious coronation of champions. It ended last night as a tearful tribute to an indomitable lion cut down inconceivably, tragically, in his prime.
Cameroon's players arrived at the Stade de France still struggling to comprehend the death of their friend, team-mate and inspiration Marc-Vivien Foe, who collapsed in the 71st minute of their semi-final against Colombia on Thursday.
The 28-year-old was carried from the field and, despite the frantic efforts of doctors at the scene, never regained consciousness.
An autopsy on the body of the Olympique Lyonnais midfielder, who spent last season on loan at Manchester City, should be completed later this week, with Foe's funeral to be staged at Lyon's Cathedrale St Jean.
Specialists are awaiting the results of further tests, including toxicology examinations. Lyon-based coroner Xavier Richaud has also ordered seized blood and urine samples from hospital tests in St Etienne on June 24th when the player was suffering from diarrhoea.
FIFA maintains the results were normal.
The world soccer body also look set to make the Confederations Cup, a four-yearly event in response to claims it is putting too much pressure on overworked players. The competition is now expected to only take place every four years as a dress rehearsal for World Cup hosts.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has now suggested that change is imminent for the tournament, which matches the leading countries of each confederation.
In the meantime, all that remains is sheer bewilderment tinged with despair. "We cannot understand how this could have happened," sighed the Cameroon centre-half Lucien Mettomo, a team-mate of Foe's at City last year. "He was so strong. This makes no sense."
In the circumstances, it had initially seemed perverse to consider going ahead with the final yesterday after the events in the searing heat at Lyon's Stade Gerland last Thursday.
The logistics of implementing a late cancellation aside, the French captain Marcel Desailly had voiced the sentiments of many when he declared that, if it had been one of his team-mates who had died, "I wouldn't have wanted to play a game of football".
"There are times when you should sit back and think about the men before thinking about the game," added Chelsea's France international Emmanuel Petit, in absentia.
Petit's brother Olivier died in April 1988 whilst playing for the amateur club Arques. "When a player dies on the pitch in these circumstances, there are other priorities," he said.
But, far from being a result of Blatter's clichéd and tactless insistence that "the game must go on", it was at the bequest of Foe's wife Marie-Louise that Cameroon's players trudged solemnly out on to the Parisian turf last night.
"It was a difficult decision and we all needed to think long and hard," said the Africans' captain Rigobert Song, who played alongside Foe for his country's junior teams prior to joining him in the seniors at the 1994 World Cup.
Song fielded telephone calls of sympathy from Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira over the weekend, Foe's death having deeply touched Cameroon's opponents. "Marco was a brother to me. Now I feel orphaned by his loss.
"I can't express my sorrow in words and, like the others, all I wanted to do at first was go home. But when his wife asked us to go on and play the game it changed the way we were thinking. His mother asked me to make this game my mission, to go out and play for her son. Marco would have wanted to win; playing this game is the best way to pay tribute to his memory."
That much became clear last night. Foe was everywhere at the Stade de France; his name worn with pride by all his Cameroon team-mates, his image omnipresent in the stands and Foe number 17 shirts doing a roaring - if mostly bootleg - trade on the streets outside the stadium.
It was a sentiment echoed across France. Both RC Lens and Lyon have retired Foe's number 17 shirt, following Manchester City's decision to do the same for the number 23, with Olympique Lyonnais to name a stadium in France's second city after the midfielder.
Last night a banner depicting Foe celebrating his goal against Nantes in 2001 fluttered at the Stade Gerland. "For Marco," it read. "An Indomitable Lion has gone, but an angel remains."
Thierry Henry's golden goal separated the sides and gave France their second successive Confederations Cup title.
