Roger Milla (born Albert Roger Miller on May 20, 1952) is a former Cameroonian football player. He is one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage. Amazingly, he did not achieve international stardom until he was 38, an age at which most other footballers have long since retired.
Born in the Cameroonian capitol of Yaoundé, he moved constantly as a child because of his father's railroad job. He signed for his first club in Douala as a 13-year-old. At 18, he won his first league championship with another Douala club; in 1976, by which time he had moved to a club in Yaoundé, he was awarded the African Golden Ball.
In 1977, he was lured to Europe by the French club Valenciennes. However, he was kept on the reserves for two years. In 1979, he joined AS Monaco, but shuttled between the reserves' bench and the injury list. The next year, he joined Bastia, but still did not flourish. He finally found stardom at Saint-Etienne in 1984; he then starred for Montpellier from 1986 to 1989, and became a member of the club's coaching staff after retiring from French football.
While playing in France, he made his first appearance for the Cameroon national team (in 1978). He was a member of Cameroon's team at the 1982 World Cup. He first retired from international football in 1987, and eventually moved to Réunion in the Indian Ocean for his retirement.
However, in 1990, he received a phone call from the President of Cameroon, who pleaded with him to come out of retirement and rejoin the national team. He agreed, and went to Italy with the Indomitable Lions for the World Cup.
Milla emerged as one of the tournament's major stars. He scored four goals in Italy, celebrating each one with a dance around the corner post that has become a popular goal celebration ever since. Two of his goals came in extra time against Colombia to carry Cameroon to the quarterfinals, the farthest an African team has ever advanced at the World Cup (Senegal matched this feat in 2002).
Milla returned to the World Cup in 1994 at age 42. In the USA, Cameroon was knocked out in the group stages; however, Milla scored the consolation prize of a goal against Russia, breaking his own record as the oldest World Cup scorer.
He is now an itinerant ambassador for African causes. In 2004, he was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé in conjunction with FIFA's centenary celebrations.
