Fakta: Ibrahim Cissé
Born: January 11, 1999.
Homeland: Ivory Coast.
Former clubs: RC Abidjan, OGC Nice, FC Famalicão, Châteauroux, Le mans, AS Nancy, KuPS.
Merits: Finsk ligamästare 2024 & 2025. Finsk cupmästare 2024.
Position: Defender
Preferred foot: Right.
Jersey number: 25
Ibrahim Cissé was born on January 11, 1999 in Koun-Fao which is located in the eastern part of his homeland, Ivory Coast. The tall centre-back, who is measured at 190cm, started his football career in Racing Abidjan’s youth team where he stayed until 2019 before moving to Europe and OGC Nice. Although he mainly belonged to the club’s second team, in the 2019/2020 season he would be allowed to make his debut in the French top league, Ligue 1. This happened on August 17, 2019 when his Nice faced Nîmes Olympique away in the second round of the league game. Ibrahim started the match on the bench and watched as his teammates scored two quick goals in the opening stages. However, the home team came back via a penalty just before the half-time break, and when the away team’s Racine Coly was shown the red card in the 51st minute of the match, Nice’s focus shifted completely to defending the lead they then owned. But with just under 15 minutes left of normal playing time, Ibrahim had to enter the field and form a center back pair with the Brazilian defender, Dante. Along with the rest of the team, Ibrahim and his men persevered and he eventually got to celebrate three points on his debut.
After his first season in France, Ibrahim was loaned to the Portuguese top league and club Famalicão. After that, there were a number of loans around Europe as Cissé does not quite manage to find his place in OGC Nice’s squad. In the 2020/2021 season, there was a move to the French Ligue 2 team LB Châteauroux. After 17 league games and a stable impression, the then 20-year-old was rewarded with a loan to French Le Mans FC. After a couple of tougher loan spells, Ibrahim signed with AS Nancy on a permanent transfer. With a season under his belt where the centre-back impressed in his game, there was a new move, this time to the Finnish top club KuPS, which today plays in the Finnish top league.
In the 2024 season, the Ivorian contributed by helping the club achieve its first ever double. With his 24 matches and his impressive centre-back play, he helped win the Finnish league title in his second season, in addition to this he was a strong contributor to KuPS also winning the cup title in the same year. As a token of his achievements, in addition to his two titles, he was awarded a place in the Veikkausliiga team of the season. Cissé’s first official goal in his professional career he scored in a 3–1 away win against SJK Seinäjoki.
In the 2025 season, Ibrahim continued to be an important cog as KuPS looked to defend their league title. This after placing in fourth place in the regular season with two points up to first, FC Inter Turku – which means that they entered a championship series together with: FC Inter Turku, Tampereen Ilves, SJK Seinäjoki, HJK Helsingfors and IF Gnistan. Here, Ibrahim and his KuPS really stepped up and when the playoffs were over, it was clear that they were at the top of the table with 67 recorded points – and Ibrahim could thus title himself Finnish champion for the second year in a row.
In total, the 27-year-old played 75 league games in Finland’s top division, 19 games in the Finnish cups and 17 games in European games. In his last game for KuPS, he crowned his three years at the club by scoring the lead against Crystal Palace away from home in the league phase of the Uefa Conference League. It also looked for a long time as if it would be the winning goal, but the London club came back and finally got an equaliser, which meant that Ibrahim and KuPS had to settle for a draw (2–2).
