Djibril Cissé

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

Cissé started his career at his boyhood club Arles-Avignon in 1989, before playing for the youth teams at Nîmes and Auxerre. Cissé spent two years in the youth system at Auxerre, 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. He went on to play in Greece with Panathinaikos, Italy with Lazio, Qatar with Al-Gharafa, Russia with Kuban Krasnodar and Switzerland with Yverdon Sport. He also had further spells in English football with Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers, and France with Marseille and Bastia. In 2015, Cissé made one appearance for Réunion based club Saint-Pierroise, before retiring from professional football. In the course of his career, Cissé suffered from two leg breaks, breaking his left leg in 2004, and his right leg in 2006.

Cissé played for 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.

Club career

Auxerre

After starting his career with Nîmes, Cissé signed for Auxerre at the age of 15. Playing for the youth team in 1999, Cissé won the Coupe Gambardella, the equivalent of the FA Youth Cup. After being promoted to the first team squad by coach Guy Roux, Cissé made his Ligue 1 debut at the age of 17 as a substitute against Paris Saint-Germain on 20 March 1999. His first goal came at the start of the 2000–01 season in a 2–1 defeat of Metz. He ended this season, his first as a regular in the first team, with eight goals from 25 games.