With Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and probable Beijing Games qualifier Nigeria representing the region, Africa has a good shot at winning its third men's soccer final in four Olympics in mid-August.

Cameroon's Bikey Amougou Andre (L) stops Didier Dogba of Cote d'lvoire during the African Cup of Nations quarterfinal match at the Military Acadamy Stadium in Cairo on February 4,2006. [Agencies]

Nigeria, which will qualify if it beats South Africa in March, won at the 1996 Atlanta Games, Cameroon stole the title in Sydney four years later, and first-timer Cote d'Ivoire will be a serious threat thanks to former African football player of the year and Chelsea striker Didier Drogba.

This month's African Cup of Nations, which gets under way on January 20, will help test the respective mettle of the three sides.

Four-time Cup winner Cameroon, the former king of African soccer and currently joint world No 24 with Sweden, will be looking to upstage Nigeria and reclaim its crown as the region's best after missing out on both the last Olympics (won by Argentina) and the last World Cup.

Despite winning the African Cup in 2002, it has only made it as far as the quarterfinals since then.

But with 26-year-old Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o at its disposal, and at least four Premiership players on the roster, including aging Newcastle captain/defender Geremi and young Arsenal midfielder Alexandre Song, Cameroon will be looking to get back to its winning ways in Ghana in two weeks' time.

The country heaps much pressure on its national and Olympic soccer teams and will not settle for a poor show from either.

It became the first African side to reach the quarterfinals of a World Cup at Italy 1990, and when it qualified for the 1994 World Cup on October 10, 1992, then-president Paul Biya declared the next day a national holiday.

So when the Olympic team won in 2000, the public was understandably ecstatic.

Yet the star of its 2000 campaign was not Eto'o but Patrick Mboma, that year's African player of the year who also led his country to victory at the 2002 African Cup.

His early goal against Brazil in the quarterfinals gave Cameroon some leverage but this sank quickly when two of its players were red carded in the second half. A last-gasp free kick from Ronaldinho threatened to give the South Americans a reprieve but the ensuing penalty shootout went to the other way.

Mboma went on to score the equalizer and draw the winning penalty against Chile in the semifinals. He got another against Spain and set up Eto to send the final to another shootout.

Mbomo was 29 at the time. Old, but not as old as Cameroon's first international soccer star, Roger Milla, was when he scored four goals at the 1990 World Cup -- he was 38.

With each country allowed to field three over-23 soccer players at the Olympics, and Cameroon having more in the way of experienced veterans, this could give it a slight edge over its African rivals this summer. A brief Asian tour last year by the national side, the Indomitable Lions, also gave it more experience of the region -- and warned it to stay on its toes.