Who are ya? Papiss Demba Cisse

Published on February 6, 2012 by Sebastian Biggam · No Comments

Newcastle United’s new signing Papiss Cisse made a dream start to his career at Tyneside after he grabbed the winner with a stunning strike against Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.

Mid-way through the second half, Cisse struck a spectacular half-volley straight into the top left-hand corner, leaving Aston Villa keeper Shay Given grasping at thin air. Starting on the bench, Cisse was hauled on earlier than expected with Newcastle manager being forced into a change after Leon Best suffered an injury with only 11 minutes on the clock. While the crowd were disappointed to see the Irishmen leave the field, a sense of excitement gripped the crowd at St. James’ Park once they saw the biggest signing of the transfer window emerge from the substitutes’ bench. It seemed that Cisse took a while to adjust to the furious pace of the game but any doubts were dispelled when in the 71st minute, the frontman controlled a long ball on his chest and lashed the ball into the roof of the net, sending the St. James’ Park faithful into raptures. Manager Alan Pardew also shared the fans’ delight by saying: “In my career, I have been lucky with strikers in debuts, and that’s struck again today – I’m really pleased because it’s a big investment for the club.”

While Cisse has made an instant impact, Newcastle United fans may want to know a little more about their new number nine. The 26-year-old Senegalese striker signed from German club Freiburg for a fee of around £9m at the start of this season’s January transfer window. After much speculation about the move circulating during the summer months, Cisse was finally able to pen a long-term contract tying him to St. James’ Park until 2017. However, supporters were forced to wait to see the Senegalese international in action, as the striker was shipped off to the host nations of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon for the biannual African Cup of Nations to represent his country alongside new striking partner Demba Ba. Newcastle managed to cope relatively well in their absence but must have been relieved to see Senegal dumped out of the tournament at the group stage, despite being one of the pre-tournament favourites with a potent strike force of Ba, Cisse and Moussa Sow.

Cisse began his career with youth team AS Génération Foot before making a switch to French Ligue 2 side FC Metz in the summer of 2005. Here, he spent four years at the club, being loaned out to various other lower division French clubs. Cisse then signed for Freiburg in a fee believed to be just above £1.5m after impressing against them in a pre-season friendly where he scored one and assisted another in a 2-1 win for FC Metz.

The transfer may represent a landmark signing for Newcastle Manager Alan Pardew as Cisse had hit a remarkable vein of form for Freiburg preceding the switch to Tyneside with many predicting great success for the man who bagged a remarkable 37 goals in 65 appearances for the Bundesliga outfit. What makes his tally more impressive is the fact that, during his three year spell at the club, Freiberg continually struggled to stay in the division, never far from the relegation places.

This season so far, Cisse has notched a total of nine league goals while the rest of his side faltered in front of goal. This notable run unsurprisingly led to summer speculation about a move away from Frieburg after Cisse finished the season second in the Bundesliga goal-scoring charts only behind that of Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez. However, despite apparent interest within other German clubs, Serie A and the Premier League, a summer transfer did not transpire and Cisse was forced to commence the season once more with Freiburg.

Newcastle were believed to have been one of the sides to have registered an interest in Cisse over the course of the summer. However, they landed their man and handed him the famous number nine shirt previously occupied by the premier league’s all-time top goal-scorer Alan Shearer. On his arrival at the club, Cisse was eager to demonstrate his delight at joining a club who have performed particularly well this season under the influence of recently appointed Alan Pardew and key man Demba Ba.

“I would like to thank everybody for their welcome and for inviting me to sign for the club,” he said. “It is an honour to play for such a big club and I am looking forward to it. I want to pay back the confidence the club have shown in me and give the supporters something to be proud of.”

Judging by his debut, it seems as if Newcastle fans will come to witness great things by Cisse and in the future, perhaps, he could emulate Shearer’s success to become one of the most feared strikers in the Premier League.