Asked about the emotions, Aliou Cissé was embarrassed. After the game against Ecuador, a reporter wanted to know whether the significance of the 2-1 win in the third group game could also be seen in the fact that he, the coach, was so overjoyed after the second goal. Normally he is not known for exuberant cheering. Cisse smiled uncertainly. “It was very important for us,” Cissé said almost apologetically. “Football is an emotional game.”
This Sunday Senegal meets England in the World Cup round of 16, the West Africans are outsiders, of course. Getting into the knockout stage is already a success, but by no means a fluke, and that has a lot to do with their unusual coach on many levels. “He’s a lion and when he talks to us, he’s like a lion too,” said midfielder Pape Gueye of his coach.
Anyone who sees Cissé for the first time sees an imposing figure of football. His voice is so deep, he would sing every Barry White song a little rougher, and judging by his outfit, Cissé could also be a musician, but more of a rapper. He stands on the edge of the field in gray joggers, trousers and a hoodie, black cap, white sneakers, and sometimes he wears designer glasses. Fashion columns at the World Cup rate his style as a “roaring success”. With his Rastas, the trainer of the “Lions of Teranga” also looks like the head lion.
His extroverted outfit contrasts with his character and nicknames often give a good indication of what someone is like. At home, the president called Cissé “the tactician” and his players jokingly called him “Jammeh” after the long-time president of neighboring Gambia. He was considered strict. The three attributes most often cited to describe him are discipline, work, and teamwork. Cissé lives it so much that questions arise when, for once, he is happy about the goal that brought Senegal to the World Cup round of 16.
Cissé loses twelve family members in a boating accident
Cissé is one of the few World Cup coaches born in Africa, although he doesn’t like it when people ask him about it himself. It sounds as if Africans can’t be trainers, he then says. But what cannot be denied is that Cissé has a special and highly emotional bond with his country – and that is also due to a boat accident.
In September 2002, the Joola, the only ferry that connects the north of Senegal with the south. According to official figures, 1,863 people died, although the boat was only licensed for around 500 passengers. The accident is considered the third largest in civil shipping after the Second World War, and it’s called “Africa’s Titanic”. Joola today. The reason for the accident today is the poor maintenance by the state. The sinking was a national catastrophe, at that time Senegal had a little more than ten million inhabitants, almost everyone knew someone who was directly affected. And among the dead were twelve family members of Cissé, aunts, uncles, nephews.
Cissé was playing in Birmingham at the time and didn’t tell his team-mates about it. He went to practice, to the game, smiled, didn’t show it. “I wanted to protect the group from my feelings,” he later said. “I wouldn’t have joined this club if it didn’t mean anything to me, if I didn’t always give my all.” Birmingham won against West Ham with him on the pitch. When fans in Birmingham heard what their player had done and is going through, a wave of solidarity for Cissé began, with many taking part in fundraisers.
Cissé recently spoke at length and publicly about the tragedy in an interview with BBC Africa for the first time. He said the reason is that the tragedy will not be forgotten. “I loved Joola, I knew her inside and out,” says Cissé. He no longer remembers how often he drove with her himself. “I could have been on the boat too,” he says. Cissé demands that the ship finally be recovered – after twenty years it is still at the bottom of the ocean.
Senegal play like a top team under Cissé
In 2015, Cissé became Senegal’s national coach, in 2018, at the World Cup in Russia, his team failed to reach the round of 16 only because of the fair play rating against the Japanese. In 2019 he lost the Africa Cup of Nations final to Algeria. The competition is extremely important in Africa and even more so for Cissé personally. Because in 2002 his team, with him as captain, lost the final against Cameroon – Cissé missed the decisive penalty. Incidentally, a fate that he shares with Gareth Southgate, his opponent this Sunday – who missed at the 1996 European Championship against Germany.
Unlike Southgate, however, Cissé has conquered the curse: this year his side defeated Egypt on penalties. And keyword discipline: when his players threw him up after the final whistle, Cissé kept his FFP2 mask on. The images of Cissé later driving through Dakar on the roof of a bus with the trophy in hand are iconic.
The fact that his team makes it into the finals and wins is not just because international top players like Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly (both Chelsea) or Sadio Mané (FC Bayern) are Senegalese. Under Cissé, the Löwen play like a top team, they have a plan with and without the ball, they can react to different game situations, which can be seen from the fact that Senegal reached the round of 16 without Mané. He was injured shortly before the World Cup.
Senegal has only reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup once. In 2002, the team beat the old colonial power France in the opening game, defeated Sweden in the round of 16 and only failed at Turkey. The team captain was Aliou Cisse.
