As the World Cup approaches in Brazil this summer, Cameroon is hoping for a respectable performance even if it is unlikely to recover its former glory.
The national team, known as the Indomitable Lions, is no longer the same as in the 1990 World Cup, when it shocked defending champions Argentina 1-0 in the opening match and came close to defeating England in the quarter-final.
It was the first time that an African team reached the quarter-finals in the World Cup, and all of Africa celebrated Cameroon's success as its own.
Including the forthcoming trip to Brazil, the central African country has now reached seven World Cup finals - the highest number for an African country - and it has won the Africa Cup of Nations on four occasions.
The 2014 World Cup will present a huge challenge, as Cameroon is paired in Group A with the fearsome Brazil, unpredictable Mexico and gritty Croatia.
But German coach Volker Finke, who has trained the side since mid-2013, believes he has had enough time to shake up the rusty team and build team spirit.
Finke has built the team around prolific striker Samuel Eto'o, who has won three Champions League titles in a stunning career and currently plays for Chelsea.
The Cameroon team has meanwhile suffered from a difficult relationship with the Federation of Cameroon Football (FECAFOOT).
Eto'o and other players even went on strike while in Morocco for a tournament in November 2011 over unpaid bonuses and appearance fees.
Players have also criticized the federation's management style and the sacking of coach Javier Clemente.
The strike in Morocco earned Eto'o a 15-match ban, though President Paul Biya persuaded FECAFOOT to guarantee that the ban would not exceed eight months.
Now that Cameroon is approaching the 2014 World Cup, team spirit needs to be worked to a peak before the last group match against Brazil, a repeat of their 1994 group encounter, which the Brazilians won comfortably 3-0.
The results of Cameroon's first two matches against Mexico and Croatia could be crucial to its progress, as a defeat against Brazil is widely regarded as a foregone conclusion.
