Aubameyang and Gabon: a chapter closes, a story remains
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There are some separations you don't anticipate. This one, we should have avoided.
On September 2, 2026, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang announced the end of his international career with the Gabon Panthers. Not with a solemn speech. With a short, measured sentence: "They humiliated and dragged my name through the mud even though I played in the AFCON while injured. This is the final straw. I prefer to stop here."
Thirty-seven years old. 86 caps. 40 goals. The greatest goalscorer in Gabon's history. And an ending that leaves a bitter taste, not because anyone is to blame, but because we realize what we are truly losing.
What happened
The 2025 AFCON was difficult for Gabon. Three group matches, three defeats. In the aftermath, the Gabonese government suspended the national team, changed the coaching staff, and sidelined both Aubameyang and Bruno Ecuele Manga.
What few people said: he was playing injured. He still put on the jersey. And his reaction, after the announcement of his exclusion, was surprisingly composed: "The problems with this team go far beyond my own person."
The words of someone who sees something bigger than his own disappointment.
What he truly represented
Born in Laval, Gabonese at heart, Aubameyang could have chosen France. He chose Gabon. From 2009, at 19 years old, he pulled on the Panthers jersey and wouldn't let it go for fifteen years.
86 caps. 40 goals. The top scorer in all of Gabon's history. And the top scorer in the entire history of the Europa League with 34 goals, an absolute record that eclipsed Falcao's. He got a country of 3 million people talked about on sports shows all over the world.
It's not just a record. It's an entire generation of Gabonese who grew up watching him play, believing that their country could count on the continental stage. That bond cannot be measured in statistics.
And meanwhile, he is on fire
What makes this story even more unique: Aubameyang is not at the end of his road.
Since his arrival at Deportivo La Coruña this summer, he has been on a roll. 5 goals in 6 matches. A starter in every game. Involved in nearly half of his team's goals. At 37 years old.
The man that Gabon has just lost is showing in Spain, week after week, that he still had football left to offer.
Was Gabon wrong?
Yes. Not because the 2025 AFCON result was acceptable. It wasn't. But publicly discarding your greatest player of all time, the one who played injured just to wear the jersey, is a management error. Not a sporting one. A human one.
The new coach Sébastien Migné will rebuild without his historic veterans. That is his right. But the real question is: could Aubameyang have remained in the ecosystem in another way? Not as a player. As a voice. As a reference for the generation coming up.
Didier Drogba in Ivory Coast. Samuel Eto'o in Cameroon. These legends no longer play, but they mentor. They build. Gabon had that card to play. They didn't play it.
A jersey, a continuity
The Azingo jersey that we wear at LMTE carries the legacy of an entire generation. Aubameyang's was part of it. 86 times the Panthers jersey. 40 goals for his country. A loyalty that deserved better than this end.
Even if this chapter is closing, the story it tells does not fade. And that is exactly why we continue to wear it.