Green Lions

I was in Cameroon in 2016 where a local told me a how he was one week selling cassava on a street stall and the next flying to the 1990 World Cup to face Maradona. The way he told the story, the buoyancy in his eyes, near tears as he rejoiced, told me there was a film here. Six years later, after all sorts of challenges getting an African story supported, we were fortunate to find a backer who believed and supported the story.

Italia 90 was the most watched sports event in history. As 30 million people tuned in for the opening ceremony, the stage was set; Diego Maradona - the greatest player in history and architect of Argentina’s 1986 triumph - was returning to Italy, the country in which he’d played domestically for almost a decade and where he was virtually deified.

Maradona led his team out for the opening game - as reigning world champions and bookies’ favourite to retain to the title. In the opposition half that day: a rag-tag team of amateurs, most of whom were still playing barefoot in the dirt when Diego lifted the trophy four years earlier. As Africa’s only qualifying nation, Cameroon were expected to be tournament whipping boys. Chances of their thirty eight year-old striker Roger Milla denting the best defences in world football; zero.

But against those odds, Milla and his men captured the world’s imagination and redefined what was possible for players across the ‘dark continent’, advancing further into the competition than any African team in history.

GREEN LIONS captures the pivotal moments of that memorable summer and charts the stories of those players since.

Where are they now? What impact have their performances had on the development of a nation and a continent? And what lessons might we learn from their story as Western football steps further towards the abyss of pay-per-view and big-money contracts.

The film is currently being broadcast on the DAZN network and also via BBC iPlayer.

The film has been commissioned by DAZN.