What André Onana Changed for African Goalkeepers
André Onana ranks No. 99 on this list because he changed what European clubs expected from an African goalkeeper. At Ajax he won three league titles and was central to a Champions League run that stopped one match short of the final. At Inter he started the 2023 Champions League final. Manchester United then paid an initial £43.8 million to sign him for the way he played the first pass. Later African goalkeepers who are asked to sweep and distribute are measured against that career.
André Onana was born in Nkol Ngok, Cameroon, on April 2, 1996. Inter Milan's player archive lists that birthplace and that date. He is about 6 feet 3 inches. Transfermarkt and National Football Teams both list the height as 1.90 meters. Inter's account of his path says the Samuel Eto'o Academy took him at age 10, Barcelona's youth setup took him at 14, and Ajax took him in January 2015.
The Thomas N'Kono page is the earlier Cameroon goalkeeper on this list. The Vincent Enyeama page is a Nigerian shot-stopping record. The Manuel Neuer page is the sweeper-keeper career that made leaving the penalty area an ordinary job at a World Cup. The Ederson page is the Manchester City goalkeeper in the Champions League final Onana started. This page is the African goalkeeper a Premier League club then bought for the first pass.
From Nkol Ngok to Ajax
Inter's signing announcement places the start in the village of Nkol Ngok, in the Yaoundé area. Tournaments run by Samuel Eto'o's academy put him in front of coaches there. A coach invited him into the academy at age 10. Four years later he traveled to Barcelona with a youth team for a tournament. Inter says that trip became his move into La Masia.
In January 2015 he moved from Barcelona to Ajax. He was not the first-choice goalkeeper. Inter's account says he was third in the order at 19, and that the chance came after 18 months, when the coach started him for three matches in a row. He became Ajax's first-choice goalkeeper at age 20.
The Ajax years
BBC Sport reported a spell of seven and a half years at Ajax, and three league titles under Erik ten Hag. Inter's account of those years adds two Dutch Cups and one Super Cup. Football Italia reported that he had played 214 games for Ajax. Inter also says he was central to Ajax's 2018-19 Champions League run, which stopped one match short of the final.
In February 2021, UEFA suspended him for 12 months. An out-of-competition test on Oct. 30, 2020, found furosemide, a banned substance. He said he had taken his wife's medicine by mistake, thinking it was aspirin. On June 10, 2021, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the ban to nine months. CAS said no significant fault could be attributed to him, because he had taken medication meant for another person in error, and that nine months was proportionate. The suspension began on Feb. 4, 2021, and ran into November 2021. BBC Sport reported that he would miss the start of the next season and could train again from Sept. 4. He left Ajax in the summer of 2022, when the contract ended.
Inter Milan
On July 1, 2022, Inter announced his signing. BBC Sport reported that the move was a free transfer. Inter said he was the first African goalkeeper to play for the club, and the fourth Cameroonian, after Samuel Eto'o, Pierre Wome, and Daniel Maa Boumsong. In that one season he won the Supercoppa Italiana and the Coppa Italia. Inter's farewell put his total at 41 appearances. BBC Sport reported eight shutouts in 24 Serie A games, and a third-place finish.
In the Champions League he played 13 matches and kept eight shutouts. UEFA's technical report says he was the second Inter goalkeeper, after Francesco Toldo in 2002-03, to keep eight shutouts in a Champions League campaign. Toldo played 18 matches in that run, including a qualifying tie. Onana played 13. UEFA also says he led the competition in goals prevented.
The final was June 10, 2023, in Istanbul. Manchester City beat Inter 1-0. Ederson was the goalkeeper for City. His career is on the Ederson page. UEFA's technical observers quoted Roberto Martínez on the other goalkeeper in that match. Martínez said Onana was less a sweeper-keeper than a holding midfielder at times, because of his passing range. Onana completed 32 of 44 passes in the final. One of them took out six City players and helped create a chance for Romelu Lukaku. Pep Guardiola said Inter had put Onana in the positions of a holding midfielder. It was one of five Inter matches in that campaign in which Onana completed 30 or more passes.
Manchester United
On July 20, 2023, Manchester United completed the signing from Inter. BBC Sport reported a fee of £47.2 million, which is 55 million euros. The initial payment was £43.8 million, with a possible £3.4 million in add-ons. He signed a five-year contract, with an option for another year, and he rejoined Ten Hag. United's football director, John Murtough, said Onana was the club's top choice because of his technical attributes. BBC Sport's account of the signing was that Ten Hag wanted the passing. A modern goalkeeper had to be comfortable with the ball at his feet, able to pass short and long, and able to give a team that held the ball a way to move it forward. BBC Sport reported that this was not the job David de Gea had been doing.
His competitive debut was Aug. 14, 2023, at Old Trafford. The Associated Press reported that United beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0, and that Onana made a series of late saves to keep the shutout. BBC Sport noted that the debut made him the fifth African goalkeeper to appear in the Premier League, after Bruce Grobbelaar, Richard Kingson, Carl Ikeme, and Edouard Mendy.
On May 25, 2024, United beat Manchester City 2-1 in the FA Cup final at Wembley. Manchester United's match report lists Onana in the starting lineup. ESPN later reported that he made 102 appearances for United. In August 2025, a penalty-shootout loss to Grimsby Town in the EFL Cup was his only United match of that season. BBC Sport reported the loan to Trabzonspor that followed. He made 29 appearances for Trabzonspor and finished the season by winning the Turkish Cup, the club's first since 2020.
On July 3, 2026, he rejoined Trabzonspor on loan for the 2026-27 season. BBC Sport reported that the agreement had no option to buy, that Trabzonspor would cover his wages and pay United a loan fee, and that two years remained on his United contract.
Cameroon
National Football Teams lists 53 FIFA matches for Cameroon. The count runs through a 1-0 loss to DR Congo on Nov. 13, 2025. BBC Sport had reported 34 caps when he left the 2022 World Cup.
At the 2022 World Cup he started the opening match, a 1-0 loss to Switzerland. BBC Sport reported 61 touches in that match, 26 of them outside the penalty area, more touches than any other goalkeeper at the tournament to that point. Coach Rigobert Song then left him out of the next match, a 3-3 draw with Serbia. Devis Epassy started. On Nov. 28, 2022, Cameroon's federation said Song had suspended Onana for disciplinary reasons. BBC Sport reported that he left the squad in Qatar. The reported dispute was about how far he came off his line. BBC Sport also reported that he retired from the national team that December.
He was in goal again for the 2026 qualifying campaign. On Nov. 13, 2025, he started the playoff against DR Congo. DR Congo scored late and won 1-0. BBC Sport reported that the defeat ended Cameroon's bid to reach the 2026 World Cup. The Indomitable Lions, who had been to eight World Cups, would be absent from the finals in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Those are three different jobs. N'Kono's page is the 1990 punch. Enyeama's page is the shot-stopping record. This page is the goalkeeper European clubs paid for the pass as well as the save.
The palm on the gloves he wore
The palms on the gloves he wore when he came off his line were foam latex, and a modern goalkeeper palm is still foam latex. That palm is the catch surface. A claim after a sweep is a hold on that foam. Moisture on that foam activates grip by sealing the micro-pores. Water fills the pores, blocks air through the backside, and the foam sucks onto the ball. Sweat is not clean water. When the moisture evaporates, salt from sweat stays in the pores and keeps drawing the natural moisture out of the latex. Dirt packs in with the salt. The palm can still look whole while the ball slides off it. Why those pores create suction is in how latex foam grips the ball.
People hear the word balm and think of lip balm. KEEPER BALM is a compound of organic, natural ingredients that is safer than most lip balms, and it was made for grip on the foam palms of goalkeeper gloves. KEEPER BALM is a compound of humectants. Those humectants keep the natural moisture in the latex, and they restore the natural moisture to latex that has dried out. Restoring that moisture restores the pliability that is already in foam latex. The difference between this grip product and a cream for skin is in what KEEPER BALM is.
If the foam is still on the palm, wash the gloves, let them air-dry, and apply KEEPER BALM. Wash the dirt and the salt out with a lukewarm rinse, and squeeze the palms gently. Do not dunk the gloves. A soak leaves grit and water in the foam. That packs the pores instead of emptying them. Air-dry the pair away from a radiator, a dryer, and a hot car. Then apply a thin layer of KEEPER BALM to the clean, dry palms. The steps are in how to care for goalkeeper gloves. The same order, for foam that has dried out, is in how to restore grip on dried goalkeeper gloves.
KEEPER BALM is for foam palms that can still take grip maintenance. If a goalkeeper cannot use KEEPER BALM because of the condition of their glove palms, then Glove Glu is an option. Replace the pair when that is the right call.
Pros use it too, and KEEPER BALM keeps goalkeeper gloves gripping like new for the life of the gloves.
The part other goalkeepers can copy is the job in front of the save. He left the penalty area, played the first pass, and still had to hold the shot. He won three league titles at Ajax doing that, started Inter's Champions League final doing that, and Manchester United paid for it. If the foam is still on the palms, wash the gloves, let them dry, and apply KEEPER BALM before the next session.