Les Astres

The colours held: opponents and supporters started calling the team les Brésiliens de Bépanda , a nod to the shirt but also to the way the side liked to play.

Les Astres built its reputation on getting close rather than winning. Three times it finished runner-up in the Elite One, in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2013, and it reached the Cameroon Cup final on four separate occasions without lifting it once — losing to Panthère sportive du Ndé in 2009, and again, more recently, to PWD Bamenda by a single goal on 13 March 2022. The pattern repeated itself abroad: in three attempts at the CAF Champions League the club never got past the first round, and its best run in the Confederation Cup ended at the semi-final stage in 2007.

Some of the players who came through Bépanda went further than the club itself. Derby games against Union Sportive de Douala, the other club sharing the city, carry their own name locally — the Derby de Douala — and draw more attention than most of the Astres' league fixtures.

The club still plays at the Stade de la Réunification. What has not arrived in over two decades is the trophy to match the near-misses.