Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse does not retreat in Turkey

Text by: Ndiasse Sambe Follow

At 35, the Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse continues to make the powder speak in the Turkish championship. With a double this weekend against Gotzepe (3-3), the Lion is now the second best fireworker in the Super Lig with 19 goals scored with his club Alanyaspor.

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Three years ago, when Papiss Cisse, a Senegalese international, left Newcastle to join the Chinese club Shandong Luneng, the label "golden exile" was affixed to the suitcase of the former player from Friborg. He himself did not hide that at 32, the financial choice had weighed. Two seasons later and 18 goals in 34 games, Cisse is back in Europe to take up one last bet in the Turkish league with Alanyaspor who was going to play his third season in the Super Lig. But in this club in the seaside town of Alanya, it is not an end of career feet in the water that the Senegalese offers but a second youth.

At 35, the Senegalese striker has scored 19 goals in 27 games since the start of the championship. While his first season in Turkey already looked like a big performance (15 goals), Papiss Cissé recurred and confirmed that he improved with age. The Metz-trained player can even hope to beat his goal record in one season (22 in 2011 with Friborg) five days before the end of the Turkish championship.

Lions, the impossible return?

What push the dream even further and find the national team of Senegal? The Lion has not been called up for selection since the pitiful elimination of Senegal in the first round of the CAN 2015 which he disputed on one leg. Wounded at the time of the enthronement of Aliou Cissé, who summoned 28 players for his first two games, the Casamance seems to have missed since the reconstruction train. And even if he confides his desire to find the Lions with which he scored 17 goals in 34 games, Papiss Cissé no longer believes in an outstretched hand from Aliou Cissé. "  Maybe I don't like him." I think it is for this reason that he does not call me in the selection,  "confided a year ago Papiss Cisse to a Senegalese television.

One certainty: the Senegalese coach does not need anyone to note the Olympic form of Cisse who has regained his legs of 20 years. In 27 games, the native of Sédhiou has won 25 times and has only been replaced five times during the match. The striker, at the end of the contract in a month, is not about to stop so on such a good way. “  I was born to score goals. I still have plenty. Wait and see,  ”he said in December 2019. A priori, the debate on the retirement age may still be postponed.

Weldone Alanyaspor good job guys pic.twitter.com/L34ZBOnnEP

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