BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Youthful Chinese Super League player, Christian Bassogog is the player Cameroon have saddled goal scoring task to as the Indomitable Lions face the Super Eagles on Friday in the first leg of the back-to-back World Cup qualification fixtures.

The 21-year old Bassogog of China based Henan Jianye appears to be up to the task as he has started talking tough.

The player who was named best player at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations is not a stranger to the Super Eagles.

Apart from the possibility of having crossed path with the nearly half a dozen of Nigerian players in the Chinese League, he was in the Cameroon squad beaten 3-0 by the Super Eagles in 2015 in a friendly match played at Vise in Belgium, the home country of Hugo Broos, the current Coach of Cameroon.

According to information gathered from FIFA, Bassogog is “arguably the fastest player in the entire Indomitable Lions squad”.

He made his debut for Cameroon last November in the 1-1 home draw with Zambia in a World Cup qualifier.

Although he has chalked up a little over 14 international caps, he has scored just twice one of which was the goal that virtually sent Ghana out of the race for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

Bassogog put into effective use, his swiftness which can be likened to that of Nigeria’s former international, the inimitable Segun Odegbami, as he paced past Ghanaians defenders to put score lines at 2-0 in the semi final clash of Africa’s premier competition. In the Chinese Super League, Bassogog has reportedly scored seven goals.

“I am not sure just how fast I am,” the former Wilmington Hammerheads winger told FIFA.com. “I have never tested my speed by running a 100-metre sprint. But I know my pace is my top strength.”

He told FIFA.com that the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year was a learning curve for him. “It was a great experience for me,” he said. “It was my first major competition with the national team. In the first game against Burkina Faso, I tried to play well but I missed a glorious chance.

“I was glad to open my account against Ghana and help my team to the final. And we won it.”

He continued that featuring in the FIFA Confederations Cup has added to his experience. He is aware of the importance of the back-to-back fixtures with Nigeria in the next few days.

That explains the over reliance on speedy Bassogog to unsettle the Nigerian defence when the two teams meet in Uyo. But Bassogog downplayed his individual skill, pointing out that the unified spirit in the Cameroon camp will see the team through in the Uyo battle if Cameroon will have any realistic chance of making it to Russia 2018.

.  “Nigeria are a strong team,” he told FIFA.com.  “They have very good players and many of them are playing in Europe. But we must defeat them if we are to maintain our qualifying hopes. We should take the game to them. We need to fight to defeat them.

“Our players are young, but we are strong as a team,” he said of Cameroon’s progress under Belgian coach Hugo Broos. “He is a good coach. He knows what the players are good at so he can get the best out of us. In this team, everyone has his chance.”

Having said that, Bassogog is all too aware what responsibility he shoulders.

“These are matches I want to win,” he said. “We are not in an ideal position but these are qualifying games for the World Cup. I will do my utmost to help our team.

“When I was young, I liked watching Eto’o. I watched carefully how he went forward and how he scored. He could always score some unexpected goals in amazing fashions. For a long time, I had thought of becoming a player like him.”