Aliou Cissé

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aliou Cissé
Image:Aliou Cissé.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Aliou Cissé
Date of birth	March 24, 1976 (1976-03-24) (age 31)
Place of birth	Ziguinchor, Senegal
Height	180 cm
Playing position	Midfield/Full back
Club information
Current club	Sedan
Number	25
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1994-1997 1997-1998 1998-2001 2001-2002 2002-2004 2004-2006 2006-	Lille Sedan PSG Montpellier Birmingham City Portsmouth Sedan	6 (0) 0 (0) 43 (1) 17 (1) 36 (0) 23 (0) 3 (0)
National team2
1999-	Senegal	28 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 27 December 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 27 December 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Aliou Cissé (born March 24, 1976 in Ziguinchor) is a Senegalese football player. He has recently signed for a second spell at French Ligue 1 side CS Sedan on a free transfer, after being released by Portsmouth in England at the end of the 2005/06 season. Cisse is an aggressive defensive midfield player who can also play at full back.

He began his career with Lille OSC before moving onto CS Sedan and then Paris Saint-Germain. He also spent the majority of the 2001-02 season on loan at Montpellier Herault SC. In the summer of 2002 Cissé captained the Senegal national team which reached the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, beating holders France en route.

Impressive performances for his country led to a transfer to English club Birmingham City for the 2002-03 season. Cissé made his debut at Arsenal on the opening day of the season, but was sent off. Though the sending-off was rescinded, he went on to pick up five yellow cards in six games, picking up ten yellow cards before the New Year.

Despite this poor discipline, Cissé was impressive for his club, until an injury in February ruled him out for the rest of the season. He was then late in returning to pre-season training in July 2003, leading to manager Steve Bruce placing him on the transfer list.

Cissé got himself back into the first team picture, but his relationship with Bruce continued to go sour, and after Christmas he only played three more games that season. At the end of the season he signed for Portsmouth for £300,000 on a two-year contract, beating off strong competition from Premiership rivals Bolton Wanderers.

In 2002, Cissé lost several members of his family in the MV Joola ferry disaster off the coast of Gambia.^[1]

Aliou's first cousin, Ibrahima Cissé, has been making headlines of his own with his Fair Trade Cashew Company in Senegal. Following the advice of his cousin, and Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes, Aliou has been reportedly eating lots of cashews before suiting up to play.

His transfer from Birmingham City to Portsmouth in August 2004 is one of those about which the Stevens inquiry report in June 2007 expressed concerns:

“Agent Willie McKay acted for Portsmouth in the transfer of Cisse and, for the same reason as above” {still awaiting clarification) “the inquiry is not prepared to clear these transfers at this stage.”^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (French) Aliou Cissé French league stats at lfp.fr
• Aliou Cissé career stats at Soccerbase

CS Sedan Ardennes - Current squad
1 Regnault | 2 Ducourtioux | 3 Yahia | 5 Thicot | 6 Lemoigne | 7 Jau | 8 Ouadah | 9 Bastien | 10 Mokaké | 11 Marin | 12 Sartre | 13 Babikian | 14 Job | 15 Lachor | 16 Trevisan | 18 Amalfitano | 19 Badiane | 21 Belhadj | 22 Noro | 23 Boutabout | 24 Henaini | 25 Cissé | 26 Abdou | 27 Maurice-Belay | 28 Pujol | Manager: Pasqualetti

	Senegal squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Sylva | 2 Daf | 3 Sarr | 4 Malick Diop | 5 N'Dour | 6 Cissé | 7 H. Camara | 8 Traoré | 9 S. Camara | 10 Fadiga | 11 Diouf | 12 Faye | 13 Diatta | 14 Moussa N'Diaye | 15 Diao | 16 Diallo | 17 Coly | 18 Thiaw | 19 Bouba Diop | 20 S. N'Diaye | 21 Beye | 22 Cissokho | 23 Makhtar N'Diaye | Coach: Metsu