A goalkeeper with great potential, Simon Ngapandouetnbu joined the Croco club to finally play professionally and progress, his goal being to one day win at Marseille, who loaned him for a year.
Everyone calls him Simon or, like some of his partners, Brady, his middle name. Not many people risk using his surname: Ngapandouetnbu. A long name not common, even in Cameroon. Few of them wear it, he assures. There is his father, his four sisters and his brother as well as a few cousins.
“It is not passed down from generation to generation”says the new Nîmes Olympique goalkeeper. Near Foumban where he was born, in the Western region of Cameroon, there is a village called Douetnbu and in the local dialect, Ngapandouetnbu means “Don’t worry about Douetnbu’s problems”. It’s said.
#football Simon, Dias and Cozzella, the three guardians of @nimesolympiquein training. Already 3 clean sheets in 5 matches for the goalkeeper on loan from@OM_Officiel. pic.twitter.com/spogTVgYqQ
— Midi Libre Sports (@MidiLibreSports) https://twitter.com/MidiLibreSports/status/1840678304099045622?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Steve Mandanda, his model
Little, N. Simon, as written on his jersey, does not play football. “I wasn’t interested in that.” Even when he arrives with his parents in Marseille where some of his uncles and aunts live, he stays far away from football things. He was then six years old. It was only a few months later that he got started, pushed by his friends at school. He first evolves in attack: “I wasn’t good up front.” It goes down a notch but in the midfield, “I had to run too much, it was tiring.”. So here he is, guardian: “I immediately fell in love with it!”
He identifies very quickly with Steve Mandanda, obviously. “He’s heavy! I’m really a fan. He’s a model for me. When I was young, I piled up his jerseys!” A few years later, he found himself training with “Il Fenomeno” which became “a big brother”. Because N. Simon has qualities, which were quickly spotted by OM, which he joined at the age of 11. His potential is such that Marseille made him sign his first professional contract at the age of 16, in October 2019. Contract has since been extended twice – in May 2022 and April 2024 – and which now runs until June 2026.
In Marseille, he has until now always remained on the bench
“The club has invested a lot in me, it doesn’t do it for everyone”notes the 21-year-old Franco-Cameroonian (1.88 m, 80 kg), who has a single objective: “Work to become a starter at OM. » He knows it, he will need the “luck factor”but he wants to believe it: “My time will come.”
This is why he joined Nîmes, on loan. “I came here on a mission. At my age, I need to play. It’s essential for my progress.”
With the Marseille club, this Protestant who tries to go to the temple once a week has no appearances in the flag team. He still sat on the bench about sixty times, “in all possible competitions”in Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.
Already three clean sheets with the Crocos
He played his matches, forty in total, with the Marseille reserve team, in N2 and N3. His first time as a pro, “This is what I will tell my children.”it was therefore with the Crocos that he performed it, against Châteauroux (1-0) on August 23. It was there that he achieved the first of his three clean sheets in five outings. “I’m crazyhe smiles, but as we have a good defense, I’m aiming for twenty in total, which would ensure twenty points minimum.”
He likes cinema and reading
The one who cuts away from football by going to the cinema (he has just seen Golo and Ritchie at Kinepolis) and by reading (he advises Mamba Mentality of Kobe Bryant and Rich dad, poor dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki) is truly ambitious, and he assures us: “The climb, I believe in it!”
However, he has already understood that the task will not be easy. The National, which he discovered and got to know by watching a lot of meetings, “is not a championship like the othershe analyzes. It’s a lot of direct play, impact and contact. You must never give up. This will allow me to gain maturity.”.
A complete, dynamic goalkeeper with scope
“Simon is a complete goalkeeper. He is very dynamic and goes to the ground very quickly despite his sizeexplains Jérémy Struffaldi, coach of the Crocs goalkeepers. He has wingspan, which allows him to take up space in the air and in his box because he doesn’t stay on his line, where he is very good.” One of its forces, seen facing Versailles, “it’s the extraordinary quality of his hand raises thanks to his power and his good vision of the gamecontinues Struffaldi. As soon as he gets the ball, he looks at the positioning of the players to quickly launch a rapid attack.”.
Element “invested and hardworking”Who “don’t think only individually”N. Simon must progress “in his management of strong and weak times and in his footwork”points out Struffaldi, the player evoking efforts still to be made in concentration and communication.
Nîmes “the right choice”
By choosing Nîmes rather than Martigues in particular, the Cameroonian international (no selection, three benches in the World Cup and one in the African Cup of Nations) is “sure of having made the right choice. I knew where I was going. They didn’t tell me: “Come and then we’ll see.” No, I spoke to the coach on the phone, he explained his game plan to me and included me in it. Thanks to Nîmes, I will be able to go higher..
