Senegal appoint their former Portsmouth, Birmingham star Aliou Cisse as national team coach

Published on: 05 March 2015
Senegal appoint their former Portsmouth, Birmingham star Aliou Cisse as national team coach
Cisse has been appointed coach of the national team

The Senegal Football Federation (FSF) has named their former international star midfielder Aliou Cissé as the new head coach of the national team Teranga Lions.

The former midfielder who played for English sides Portsmouth and Birmingham succeeds Frenchman Alain Giresse, whose contract was terminated following Senegal’s first round exit at the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea 2015.

“Mr Aliou Cissé has been appointed as the head coach of the senior national team of Senegal,” FSF announced in a press release.

Strongly backed by the ‘Class of 2002’, whom he captained to reach the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea, the 38-year-old was chosen ahead of several foreign candidates, including Luis Fernandez, Jean Pierre Papin, Alex Dupont, José Anigo, Elie Baup and Frédéric Antonetti, as well as locals Lamine Dieng, Souleymane Camara ‘Gaucher’, Cheikh Moussa Kamara ‘Big Boy’ and Boubacar Gadiaga.

A former Paris Saint-Germain, Montpellier, Birmingham City and Portsmouth player, Cissé was assistant to head coach Amara Traoré at the 2012 AFCON before leading the U-23 squad to the quarterfinals of the 2012 Olympics in London.

In the race to succeed Joseph Koto at the head of the senior team in January 2013, he lost the main job to Giresse, whom he is now replacing.

Aliou Cissé earned 35 caps with the Teranga Lions between 1999 and 2005, competing at the 2002 and 2004 AFCON finals and the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

FSF will hold a press conference in the coming days to formally introduce the Lions’ new head coach and unveil his objectives.

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