Aliou Cissé, the quiet revolutionary

How the boy from Ziguinchor overcame every hurdle to transform African football.

As the international window resumes later today and African nations continue the qualifiers for the next Africa Cup of Nations, they do so without perhaps the most influential figure in African football over the last decade, Aliou Cissé.

The Senegalese national coach was closing in on nearly ten years at the helm of the Teranga Lions when he was informed that his formidable services were no longer required by the West African nation. The decision last week came as quite a shock as he was considering another extension to his contract when reportedly the Sports Ministry of Senegal stepped in to force the Federation to terminate Cissé’s contract.

But Cissé can leave the post head held high, and no doubt he will. A man with unshakable self-belief and determination, he has overcome every obstacle to put Senegal on the map, bringing them their first ever AFCON title, two World Cup appearances and making the Teranga Lions the team to beat in Africa, all while looking like the calmest and coolest manager around.

Like many of Africa’s stars, Cissé’s footballing journey started in a Parisian suburb after he moved from Senegal as a nine year old. After breaking through at Lille, Cissé made his name as a no-nonsense midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain, Birmingham City and Portsmouth among others.

But it was with Senegal where he thrived most as a player. Amidst the ludicrously talented golden generation of Senegalese footballers like El Hadji Diouf, Kalilou Fadiga, Henri Camara and Papa Bouba Diop, it was the captain and defensive midfielder Cissé who drove the team to success. At the 2002 World Cup, Cissé’s Senegal caused one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history by beating world champions France on their debut before reaching the quarter finals.

Six months earlier Cissé captained the team to a first ever AFCON final where excruciatingly it was Cissé who’s final penalty was saved by Cameroon’s Alioum Boukar to give the Indomitable Lions their  fourth AFCON and hand Cissé his first AFCON heartbreak.

Famously, Cissé’s roommate at the tournament, Salif Diao remembers Cissé telling him, “This trophy was in my hands. I was holding it with one hand and Cameroon stole it from me… If I don't win it as a player, I will win it one day as a coach."

That determination and drive to overcome adversity is what came to define Cissé as a player and then as a coach (even more than his iconic dreads). That resilience would be tested even further that year when in September, 11 of Cissé’s family would perish aboard the MV Le Joola, a Senegalese ferry that capsized off the coast of Gambia, killing 1,863 people, including Cissé’s sister. Despite hearing the news ahead of a Premier League fixture, Cissé would play for his new club Birmingham twice before flying back to Senegal to be with his family.

From nearly man to superman

Just three years after calling it quits as a player, Cissé joined the Senegalese 2012 Olympics team as an assistant coach to Karim Sega Diouf where they reached the quarter finals.

Cissé stayed on with the Teranga Lions after the Olympics and became assistant to Frenchman Alain Giresse for a couple years but after Giresse was let go following a group stage exit at the 2015 AFCON, Cissé was given the top job in March 2015. With a new crop of talent including Sadio Mané, Kalidou Koulibaly, Idrissa Gueye and Cheikhou Kouyaté, Cissé took the team to a first knockout experience in over a decade in his first AFCON in 2017 where he once again came unstuck on penalties against a Cameroon team that would win the tournament.

But it was a year later that Cissé made his first huge stride as a coach, leading the team back to the World Cup for the first time since he captained the team in 2002. And it was at the 2018 World Cup in Russia where he reintroduced himself to the world. At 42, Cissé was the youngest manager at the World Cup and the only black coach at the tournament. But once again, Cissé would come up just short. Despite beating Poland in their first group game, Senegal drew with Japan before losing to Columbia. This left them on four points, four goals scored and four goals conceded, an identical record to Japan’s. With nothing left to separate the two teams, Senegal were knocked out because they had two more yellow cards than Japan. Cissé and Senegal became the first team in history to be knocked out at a major tournament on “fair play”.

12 months on from the World Cup heart break, Cissé had another shot at the AFCON in Egypt and once again came unstuck at the final hurdle. With Cameroon thankfully knocked out in the round of 16, Senegal reached the final off the back of three clean sheets in the knockout rounds only to lose 1-0 to Algeria, ironically coached by Djamel Belmadi who grew up in the same neighbourhood of Paris as Cissé.

Once again Cissé was knocked down and once again he would get up. Driven by that loss Cissé’s Senegal turned into a winning machine, going undefeated in both AFCON 2021 qualifying and World Cup 2022.

Despite the success on the pitch, the pressure was on Cissé ahead of the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon. Having delivered success but falling just short on both the African and World stage, he was seen by many in Senegal as not the reason for their success, but instead the reason for their failure.

Even former teammates of Cissé joined the pile on with El Hadji Diouf even going as far as saying, "This team has the ability to win an Africa Cup of Nations, but that cannot be achieved if Aliou Cissé remains at the helm of the national team."

But once again, Cissé rose to the challenge, taking the team to the final of the AFCON in Cameroon where they faced Africa’s most successful team, Egypt, led by arguably Africa’s greatest ever player in Mohamed Salah. After a tense 0-0 draw the game had to be decided on penalties. Almost 20 years to the day, Cissé’s Senegal were in a penalty shoot out to win the AFCON. Fortunately for Cissé, this time instead of taking the final penalty himself, Sadio Mané took that burden and smashed home to win and complete Cissé and Senegal’s redemption.

Instead of the pariah he could have been, Cissé returned to Senegal to literally millions of fans who had come out onto the streets of Dakar to welcome the Lions home.

A legacy beyond success

A few months later Cissé’s Senegal faced off against Egypt in a two legged playoff. Having lost 1-0 in Cairo and won 1-0 in Dakar, once again they would head to penalties. But having banished his penalty trauma and with the help of thousands of Senegalese lasers pointed at Salah and his teammates, Senegal once again triumphed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar where they would again make improvements on their previous outings by getting out of the group stage.

And earlier this year Senegal once again seemed to be improving as they began their AFCON title defence in Côte d'Ivoire. With the monkey off their back, Senegal looked unleashed, comfortably winning the group of death with three wins from three (the only team to do so). But in one of the biggest shocks of the tournament. Côte d'Ivoire, having sacked their coach Jean-Louis Gasset just days earlier, came from behind to beat Senegal on penalties and kick start the most unlikely of AFCON triumphs in history.

And it was that AFCON defeat that ultimately led to Cissé’s demise as Senegal’s head coach. He was a victim of his own success, and for the first time in his coaching career, was unable to improve the team.

But for all of Cissé’s success on the pitch and within Senegal, the true legacy he will leave behind is the way he has transformed the coaching landscape in Africa. Cissé and Senegal have proven to the continent that when nations believe in themselves and give coaches from the continent time and support that anything is possible.

Prior to Cissé’s appointment in 2015, of the 16 teams at the AFCON, only three were coached by African coaches. Less than a decade later in Côte d'Ivoire, 16 of the 24 nations were coached by Africans. Of the nations that have seen success in that time, only Cameroon’s 2017 success came under a European coach. Belmadi brought the AFCON back to Algeria, Cissé brought it to Senegal and Morocco’s own Walid Regregui shocked the world by taking the Atlas Lions to the world cup semi finals and shattering a glass ceiling that had been over Africa for decades.

Côte d'Ivoire’s success this year was an even more stark example. Having nearly been knocked out in the group stage and suffered their most humiliating defeat in history in a 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea, Frenchman Gasset was sacked before Ivorian Emerse Faé did the unthinkable and led Les Elephants to the title.

In the two years after Cissé’s triumph, Senegal have dominated African football at every level. They have won the most recent U-17 AFCON, U-20 AFCON, CHAN (the AFCON but only using African based players) and the Beach Soccer AFCON, all led by Senegalese coaches. Cissé not only has turned Senegal into a winning machine, but an African made winning machine.

Driven, disciplined, principled and graceful in both victory and defeat, Aliou Cissé has ushered in a new era of African excellence.