Albert Roger Miller (born 20 May 1952), known as Roger Milla, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a forward. FIFA described Milla as "one of the first global stars from Africa". He represented Cameroon at three FIFA World Cup tournaments.
He achieved international stardom at 38 years old, an age at which most forwards have retired, by scoring four goals at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, becoming the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history at the time. He helped Cameroon become the first African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals. Four years later, at the age of 42, Milla broke his own record as the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history by scoring against Russia in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Milla frequently celebrated goals by running to the corner flag and performing a dance similar to the lambada. In 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. In 2007, the Confederation of African Football named Milla the best African player of the previous 50 years. At the time of his retirement, he was regarded as the all-time topscorer from African region in FIFA World Cup finals with five goals and his record was eventually surpassed by Ghana's Asamoah Gyan.
His birth certificate as well as his passport implies his name as Roger Miller due to a clerical error and misunderstanding. His parents wanted to give him the surname of his uncle 'Milla' by the time he was born. He was often referred to as Miller whenever he featured in high-profile international matches, with World Cup statistical sheets incorrectly referring to him as Miller, demonstrating how much his name had been mispronounced and incorrectly heard in international community. His family moved to Douala when he was 11.
His father worked on the railroads and Milla had the fortune of travelling all over the nation on many occasions in his childhood. He was raised up in the streets of Yaoundé and he hailed from a typical middle-class family so that his parents were able to provide him a satisfactory education. However, his parents were unhappy when they noticed that Milla was going after football and they were initially reluctant to accept their son playing the sport of football.
He learnt the art of playing football by playing barefoot with fellow kids on dirt streets and roads and in most of the occasions he played with an orange or a tin can as an alternative option for a ball. He also had the habit of kicking lemons and rags tied together into balls. He along with other children had to play in dusty courts since Cameroon had not yet established children soccer academies at that time and Cameroon did not have the luxury of well maintained fields nor did they afford to have licensed coaches. It was revealed that Milla played football solely for leisure, fun and entertainment purposes and did not think seriously of making it as his career and he went onto polish his football skills during school vacations.
Roger Milla himself said that he had finished high school but his claim has been refuted by some Cameroonian writers. He has three brothers with different surnames, being Joseph Debouba, Jacques Edjanque and Alexandre Diboussi. He nearly quit the sport after his mother's untimely death at home, during a time when he played soccer in a distant arena. Additionally, his wife had become pregnant as the couple awaited their second child.
He played for Eclair de Douala's junior team at the age of 13 and engaged exclusively in school tournaments. He later convinced his parents following his impressive performances in age group category matches.
He made his debut for Eclair de Douala's senior team in the second division of the Cameroonian championship at the age of 15. Two years later, aged 17, he became the Cameroonian schools high jump champion. He signed up for the top division club Léopard Douala in 1970 at the age of 18 and eventually went onto win three Cameroonian championship titles with the club. He also scored a tally of 89 goals in 116 appearances for Léopard Douala during a tenure of four years. He subsequently moved to Tonnerre Yaoundé in 1974 four years after the successful stint with Léopard Douala. He won the African Cup Winners' Cup with Tonnerre Yaoundé and for Tonnerre Yaoundé club he scored 69 goals in 87 games.
He moved to France at the age of 25 in 1977 where he spent 12 years of his career playing for various clubs. In 1977, he was lured to Europe by the French club Valenciennes. There he scored 6 goals in 28 league games over two seasons. In 1979, he joined AS Monaco, where he won the 1980 French Cup and scored 5 goals in 25 league and cup games. He had endured multiple injury concerns during his short stay and his team management decided to release him at the end of the season. The next year, he joined Bastia, where he spent four seasons. Milla scored 42 goals in 133 competitive matches and was instrumental in assisting the club to win the 1981 French Cup.
He next moved to Saint-Etienne in 1984 and became a crucial member of the club, which was recovering from the aftermath of a massive bribery scandal in 1982 and the subsequent relegation to Division 2, having had to sell out most of its first-choice players. He overall played 69 matches for the club scoring 36 goals and played a part in helping the club to re-enter the first division. He then starred for Montpellier from 1986 to 1989, where Milla later went on to become a member of the club's coaching staff after retiring from French football. In his first season, Milla scored 18 goals in 33 regular season matches, which ultimately helped the Montpellier to return to Division 1. Overall, he scored 41 goals in 103 appearances for the Montpellier.
Milla left French football at the age of 37 in 1989 and moved to Réunion in the Indian Ocean where he played for JS Saint-Pierroise. After his World Cup success, he returned to Tonnerre in Cameroon for four seasons. He closed out his playing days with two clubs in Indonesia after the 1994 World Cup, retiring from the sport at the end of the 1996 season. The number of goals he had scored in the Indonesian local championship surpassed the number of matches he had even played in the competition, with 41 goals coming in just 35 matches over a period of two years.
Milla was capped 77 times for the national team, scoring 43 goals. Milla made his first appearance for Cameroon in 1973 versus Zaire in a World Cup qualifier.
He made his World Cup debut in also what is considered to be the maiden World Cup appearance for Cameroon when they qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup after winning both their final round matches against Morocco at the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification for the African Zone. Milla played an instrumental role in helping Cameroon to qualify for the 1982 World Cup by top scoring in the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification for the African Zone competition. He endured mixed emotions at 1982 FIFA World Cup having a goal disallowed against Peru in their first match. Cameroon went out with three draws from their three first-round games. Two years later, he was part of the squad competing at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
Milla was also an integral member of the Cameroonian squad which won the 1984 African Cup of Nations where Cameroon defeated Nigeria 3-1 in the final to secure Cameroon's first ever continental title. He was a key member of the Cameroonian side which emerged as runners-up to Egypt in the final of the 1986 African Cup of Nations and he received the best player award in the tournament for being the top goal scorer with 4. He was also named in 1986 African Cup of Nations team of the tournament. He was also the joint top goalscorer in the 1988 African Cup of Nations with 2 goals alongside Algeria's Lakhdar Belloumi, Abdoulaye Traoré of Ivory Coast and Gamal Abdelhamid of Egypt. He once again played a vital role in Cameroon's triumph at the 1988 African Cup of Nations and for his noteworthy performances throughout the tournament, he was adjudged as the player of the tournament and was also included in the 1988 African Cup of Nations team of the tournament.