The reigning world champion and Cameroon are taking advantage of the FIFA allocated day of international football friendlies to fine-tune their build-up to the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Cameroon’s coach, Paul Marie Le Guen has published a list of 22 international and local players for the game. Already the list is making waves across media circles in and out of Cameroon following the conspicuous absence of the two old timers. They were amongst seven players of the Cameroonian squad that were part of the Angolan 2010 campaign but have been left out in the upcoming friendly.

The other five who have been dropped are; Aurelien Chedjou, Andre Stephane Amougou Bikey, Gilles Augustin Binya, Guy Roland N’dy Assembé and Paul Claudel Alo’o Efoulou.

The French-born trainer for Cameroon, who received scathing criticisms for Cameroon’s elimination at the quarter-finals of AFCON 2010, has brought in some new players and invited others who have been in the Lions’ den before but were not part of the Angolan 2010 expedition.

The new comers are; Joel Matip Job, 18, of Bundesliga side, FC Schalke 04, Marvin Matip Job, 24, elder brother to Joel. He plays for another German Club, FC Cologne, Dany Nounkeu of Toulouse, France and the two home based players; Mabouka Massoussi and Abouna Ndzana both from Astre of Douala.

Those making a come back are; Tottenham Hotspur duo, Sebastien Bassong and Benoit Assou Ekotto who were instrumental in the Lions qualification for the World Cup and Rostand Dorge Kouemaha of Belgian club, FC Bruges.

The complete list of 22 is as follows;

1. Idriss Carlos Kameni ( Espagnyol Barcelona, Spain)
2. Souleymanou Hamidou ( Kayserispor, Turkey)
3. Achille Webo ( Mallorca, Spain)
4. Samuel Eto’o ( Inter Milan, Italy)
5. Alexandre Song ( Arsenal, England)
6. Nicolas Nkoulou ( Monaco, France)
7. Georges Mandjeck (Kaiserslautern, Germany)
8. Achille Emana ( Real Betis, Spain)
9. Landry Nguemo ( Celtic Glasgow, Scotland)
10. Henri Bedimo Nsamè ( Lens , France)
11. Somen A Tchoyi ( Red Bulls Salzburg, Austria)
12. Enoh Eyong Tarkang (Ajax of Armsterdam, Holland)
13. Jean II Makoun ( Olympique Lyonnais, France)
14. Stéphane Mbia (Olympique Marseille, France)
15. Idrissou Mohamadou ( SC Freiburg, Germany)
16. Benoit Assou Ekotto( Tottenham, England)
17. Sebastien Bassong ( Tottenham, England)
18. Mabouka Massoussi (Astres FC of Douala)
19. Abouna Ndzana (Astres FC of Douala)
20. Nounkeu Dany (Toulouse, France)
21. Joël Matip (FC Schalke 04, Germany)
22. Kouemaha Dorge Rostand ( FC Bruges, Belgian)

The March 3 fixture will be the third match between Cameroon and Italy after that of June 17 1998, at the 1998 World Cup in France (Italy won 3-0) and on June 23 1982, during the World Cup in Spain. Cameroon pulled a one all tie with Italy, with midfielder, Mbida Arantes equalizing for Cameroon.