Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang says he has decided to step away from Gabon again after being left out following the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, with the 37-year-old suggesting this latest dispute could bring a definitive end to his international career.
Speaking on Canal+ programme Talents d’Afrique, the Deportivo La Coruna striker described the treatment he received as humiliating and said he had played at the tournament while injured.
“They humiliated and smeared me even though I had played in the Africa Cup of Nations while injured,” Aubameyang said. “That was the final straw and I would rather stop here.”
The decision follows another breakdown in relations with the Gabonese authorities, only months after the Pantheres exited the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in the group stage.
Gabon lost all three of their matches at the tournament, after which the government decided to suspend Aubameyang and Bruno Ecuele Manga. Both players were reinstated several days later, but the latest episode has added to a pattern of conflict between Aubameyang and his national team.
The first major rupture came at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, which was played in Cameroon in January 2022. Aubameyang, who was preparing to leave Arsenal during the January transfer window, departed the competition without playing a minute.
He and Mario Lemina had contracted Covid-19 before the tournament. The situation became controversial when a video emerged showing the pair without masks in a nightclub during a night out at Gabon’s training camp in the United Arab Emirates, where they may have contracted the virus.
Although subsequent tests were negative, the Confederation of African Football refused to allow them to play, citing the risk of cardiac complications. The Gabonese Football Federation then authorised both players to return to their clubs, officially because of the CAF decision.
Unofficially, the move was linked to disciplinary concerns and reports that the players had returned to the team hotel with women after a night of drinking. Aubameyang left the tournament early amid an increasingly difficult situation.
“Am I still an international player? For the moment, it is on standby,” he told beIN Sports in March 2022.
Two months later, on 17 May, he announced his retirement from international football at the age of 32. In a letter, he referred to “13 years of pride representing my country” and thanked the people of Gabon, his coaches, team-mates and his father.
The retirement lasted only a year. Aubameyang returned to the national team in May 2023 after meeting Gabon’s president Ali Bongo, who acted as an intermediary between the player, the federation and the coaching staff.
Tensions resurfaced in 2024, this time involving Thierry Mouyouma, who had been appointed head coach in October 2023. Aubameyang missed the new manager’s first training camp, citing an injury but not attending an examination to confirm it.
Mouyouma later said he had tried to contact Aubameyang without receiving a response. He did not select him in November or for the following squad in March 2024.
Aubameyang’s camp disputed that account. “The reality is that they never spoke to each other,” people close to the player told La Provence, describing the situation as “undignified treatment” and saying it was difficult to imagine the pair working together in the future.
The two eventually met in late March to resolve their differences. “We spoke completely honestly; he told me the things he had to tell me and I did the same,” Aubameyang told RFI.
“These are the people who create unnecessary tensions. (...) They made him believe that I was perhaps someone who thought he was better than others, and they made me believe that he was pretending to contact me.”
Aubameyang returned to the squad again and helped Gabon reach the semi-finals of the African play-offs for the 2026 World Cup. His outstanding contribution included a memorable four-goal performance in a 4-3 victory over The Gambia.
Two years later, another split has left Aubameyang appearing to have reached the limit of his patience. Gabon are set to lose their captain and all-time leading scorer, who has scored 40 goals in 86 appearances.
The repeated cycle of departures, returns and fresh disputes has overshadowed the latter part of his international career. Aubameyang first chose to represent Gabon at the age of 19, despite having the option of playing for France.
His record with the national side will leave a sense of unfinished business when compared with his outstanding club career. Gabon reached the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals in 2012, when the country hosted the tournament, but were eliminated in the group stage at home in 2017.