The 38-year-old Cameroon super-sub had illuminated Italia 90 with four goals and his famous corner flag celebration to help ‘The Indomitable Lions’ make history by becoming the first African nation to reach the quarter-finals.
His reward was a phone call from Walsall, newly relegated to England’s old Division Four.
“We were the first club to make an enquiry and I thought he could bring a bit of joy back to the club,” recalled Hibbitt, who had just taken over as Saddlers boss. We had a Cameroon player, Charlie Ntamark, training with us that summer to get over an injury that had meant he missed the World Cup. He acted as a go-between for us to speak to Milla.
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get. But Roger wanted $1m to play for us and, unfortunately, we were broke. We ended up signing Charlie instead.”
Twenty-four years on, Milla has finally made it to Walsall, not to play for the Saddlers but to visit the University of Wolverhampton’s campus in the town to say thank you for their assistance with his humanitarian foundation, which helps underprivileged children in Cameroon.
His waistline is a little wider these days, but Milla is still dancing - he told BBC Sport he keeps fit by going running every day and gets asked to perform his legendary hip wiggle wherever he goes around the world.
That trademark goal celebration has been much imitated down the years but, unlike many footballers who try to mark a goal in a memorable way, Milla says he had not planned anything special beforehand.
“It came to me in the moment, in the stadium when I scored that first goal [against Romania]. It was instinct,” Milla said. “I couldn’t plan it before the tournament because I didn’t know if the coach was going to pick me to play, and I didn’t know if I was going to score a goal.”
Not many people were expecting to see Milla at that World Cup, much less make such a lasting mark without even starting a game - he played in 235 out of the 510 minutes in which Cameroon were on the field.
That is because a year earlier, at the end of a playing career predominately spent in France, the striker moved to the tiny Indian Ocean island Reunion, east of Madagascar, to play for an amateur side Jeunesse St Pierroise, combining that with his work as a radio pundit.
“I went there for a bit of a rest,” Milla explained. “Then I started playing for a little club run by my friend just for a bit of fun and that is what led to me coming back for the World Cup.”
