Aubameyang quits Gabon after AFCON fallout: ‘They humiliated and smeared me’

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has walked away from international football with Gabon, saying the treatment he received after the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations left him feeling “humiliated and smeared”.

The 37-year-old captain announced his decision in a television interview broadcast this week, bringing an end to one of the longest and most important international careers in Gabonese football.

But this is more than a veteran striker deciding it is time to leave.

Aubameyang's retirement is the latest chapter in a bitter dispute with the authorities that began after Gabon's disastrous AFCON campaign in Morocco and continued even after the government reversed its decision to exclude him.

“I felt humiliated and smeared even though I played at AFCON while injured,” Aubameyang said in the interview on Canal+.

“It was the last straw and I prefer to stop here.”

His departure leaves Gabon without its captain, record goalscorer and one of the country's most recognisable sporting figures.

The AFCON campaign that changed everything

Gabon entered AFCON 2025 with considerable experience in its squad, but the tournament quickly unravelled.

The Panthers were drawn in Group F alongside Cameroon, Mozambique and defending champions Côte d'Ivoire.

They lost all three matches and finished bottom of the group without a point.

Their first defeat was a 1-0 loss to Cameroon. They then fell 3-2 to Mozambique, with Aubameyang scoring Gabon's first goal deep into first-half stoppage time.

It was a significant moment for the striker.

CAF recorded it as his seventh AFCON goal, the most by any Gabonese player in the tournament's history.

But the goal could not rescue Gabon's campaign.

The Panthers lost their final group match 3-2 to Côte d'Ivoire and were eliminated.

Importantly, Aubameyang did not play in that final match. He had suffered a thigh injury and returned to his club, Marseille, after medical advice.

That detail has become central to his account of what followed.

The government turned on the team

After the tournament, the Gabonese government took an unusually strong step.

The national team was suspended, the coaching staff was dismissed and Aubameyang and veteran defender Bruno Ecuele Manga were singled out for exclusion.

The measures followed Gabon's winless campaign and were presented by authorities as a response to the team's disappointing performance.

For Aubameyang, however, the episode became personal.

He has argued that he was treated unfairly despite playing while injured and believes the problems surrounding the national team go much deeper than his own situation.

His comments point to a wider frustration with the way Gabon's football is being run.

The ban did not last

The confrontation did not end with Aubameyang's exclusion.

On January 12, 2026, Gabon's football federation announced that the government measures suspending the national team had been lifted.

Aubameyang and Ecuele Manga were also reinstated.

The coaching staff, however, remained dismissed as the federation began searching for a new technical team.

The reversal meant Aubameyang was once again available to represent his country.

But the relationship had clearly been damaged.

Seven months later, he has now chosen to end it.

A complicated return to the Panthers

Aubameyang's international career had already seen its share of twists.

He returned to the Gabon squad in 2025 after periods of uncertainty over his future with the national side.

He then played a major role in Gabon's 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.

In October 2025, he scored all four goals in Gabon's 4-3 victory over The Gambia in Nairobi, helping the Panthers reach the African play-offs for the World Cup. CAF reported that Gabon finished among the best runners-up and secured a place in the play-off stage.

That made his subsequent fallout with the authorities even more striking.

Only months earlier, he had been leading the national team through one of its most important qualifying campaigns.

Gabon now faces life without its biggest name

Aubameyang leaves behind a substantial record.

Current figures put him at 40 goals in 86 appearances for Gabon, making him the country's leading international scorer.

He made his international debut in 2009 and went on to represent Gabon at multiple AFCON tournaments.

His most memorable continental moment came at the 2012 AFCON, when Gabon reached the quarter-finals on home soil.

There were also difficult moments.

Gabon failed to progress from the group stage at AFCON 2017 and again at the 2025 tournament.

The contrast between Aubameyang's individual achievements and Gabon's struggles has been a recurring feature of his international career.

He has often carried the expectations of a country whose football ambitions have not always matched its results.

What happens next?

Aubameyang's decision comes as Gabon prepares for its next phase under new coach Sébastien Migné.

The national team must now begin planning without the player who has been its main attacking reference point for more than a decade.

There is also a more immediate question.

Can Gabon move beyond the disputes that have repeatedly overshadowed its football?

The AFCON episode exposed tensions between the government, the federation, the coaching structure and senior players.

Aubameyang's decision suggests that simply reinstating players does not necessarily repair those relationships.

The government reversed its decision in January.

The player has now made his own decision.

A painful ending to a remarkable chapter

There is no suggestion that Aubameyang is retiring from football altogether.

His decision concerns international football.

He continues his club career with Deportivo La Coruña after moving to the Spanish side this year.

For Gabon, however, his departure marks the end of an era.

The country is losing its captain and record scorer at a time when it is trying to rebuild after a deeply disappointing AFCON campaign.

For Aubameyang, the ending is clearly personal.

He did not leave simply because the goals stopped coming.

He left because, in his words, the treatment he received became the “last straw”.

And that may ultimately be what defines the final chapter of his Gabon career — not the number of goals he scored, but the breakdown in trust between one of the country's greatest footballers and the people running its national team.

About the Author

Maureen Onyango is a journalist passionate about storytelling, life coaching and spiritual lessons. She studied at the Kenya Institute of Management and enjoys telling stories that inform, inspire and empower communities.