Djibril Cissé

Djibril Cissé (born 12 August 1981) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward.

He started his career at AC Arles in 1989, at the age of eight. After seven years at the club, he had a six-month spell at Nîmes Olympique, before moving to AJ Auxerre, joining the club's youth system. Cissé spent two years in the system, before graduating to the first team in 1998. After playing for Auxerre for six seasons, scoring 90 goals in 166 appearances, he moved to Premier League club Liverpool in 2004.

During his time at Anfield, Cissé played 79 games, scoring 24 times and winning the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League and 2005–06 FA Cup.[4] He went on to play in Greece with Panathinaikos, Italy with S.S. Lazio, Qatar with Al-Gharafa and Russia with Kuban Krasnodar. He also had further spells in English football with Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers, and France with Olympique de Marseille and SC Bastia. In 2015, Cissé made one appearance for Réunion based club JS Saint-Pierroise,[5] before retiring from professional football.[6] In the course of his career, Cissé suffered from two leg breaks, breaking his left leg in 2004,[7] and his right leg in 2006.[8]

Cissé represented the France national football team at the 2002 and 2010 FIFA World Cups and was also part of les Bleus' 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup winning squad.

Liverpool
At Liverpool, Cissé scored 5 goals in 24 first-team games in all competitions for Liverpool in the 2004–05 season.[15] He had only played 19 games for Liverpool when a freak accident occurred while playing against Blackburn Rovers on 30 October 2004. While Cissé and Blackburn's Jay McEveley were challenging for the ball, Cissé's boot got caught in the turf and his leg snapped. This resulted in a broken tibia and fibula, and physio Daryl Martin said "It could take six to nine months for a recovery and the absolute worst-case scenario is 18 months..."[16] Cissé later revealed that had it not been for prompt attention from the trainers at the stadium, he would probably have lost the leg below the knee.[17] He had pins inserted in the leg, and was expected to be out of action for the rest of the 2004–05 season.[18][19]

However, in an unexpected return, Cissé was able to come on as a 75th-minute substitute in the second leg of Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final tie with Juventus on 13 April 2005.[20] He went on to score both Liverpool goals in their last Premiership match of the season, a 2–1 win over Aston Villa[21] and also converted a penalty in Liverpool's penalty shootout win over AC Milan in the Champions League final.[22] During the 2005–06 season, Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez deployed Cissé on the right wing on numerous occasions.[23] While his pace made him well suited to such a role, it was doubtful whether he would be happy to continue in this role rather than in his preferred position as striker.[9] He scored two goals as Liverpool won the 2005 UEFA Super Cup. Cissé also scored Liverpool's opening goal in the 2006 FA Cup Final with a sliding shot past West Ham United keeper Shaka Hislop. Liverpool went on to win 3–1 on penalties. He ended the 2005–06 season with 19 goals in all competitions.

Honours
Auxerre

Coupe de France: 2002–03
Liverpool

FA Cup: 2005–06
UEFA Champions League: 2004–05
UEFA Super Cup: 2005
Panathinaikos

Super League Greece: 2009–10
Greek Football Cup: 2009–10
France

FIFA Confederations Cup: 2003
Individual

UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month: December 2003
UNFP Division 1 Young Player of the Year: 2001–02
Super League Greece Best Foreign Player: 2010