Player Profile

Cissé joined Auxerre as a youngster and his star shone brightly in 2001/02, scoring all kinds of goals, some of them truly spectacular, and finished as top-scorer in France with 22 goals from 29 league games. Houllier was a firm admirer and signalled his intentions to his old friend Guy Roux, Auxerre's manager. "Gérard and I speak all the time and it does not usually take him long to get round to the subject of Djibril," revealed Roux. "There is no denying Djibril's game would flourish in the English game. With his pace, he would be one of the most destructive strikers in the English game." Cissé realised he was going nowhere yet and had a somewhat disappointing 2002/03 season, scoring 14 goals in 33 league games. In the summer of 2003 Roux persuaded him to stay for one more season. Liverpool-bound Cissé played superbly in his final season and scored 26 goals in 38 league games and was again king of the scoring charts in the French league. He was top-scorer by a good margin of six from Alexander Frei at Rennes and seven from Marseille's star striker Didier Drogba. Cissé scored 70 goals in 128 league games during his six seasons at Auxerre.

Ironically two weeks before Cissé's arrival at Anfield on 1 July 2004 Houllier had left the club by mutual consent. He now had to impress former Valencia boss, Rafa Benítez. By October Cissé admitted to LFC Magazine he was struggling in his new surroundings: "The game is much faster and more physical than I am used to and I am being singled out for close marking." In only his fifteenth game for Liverpool, having scored three goals, Cissé suffered a fracture of the tibia and fibula of his left leg against Blackburn on 30 October 2004. He was out of action for six months returning in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Juventus. If he hadn't been given the right treatment Cissé's career might have ended there and then. He was a substitute in nine of the ten games he featured in the rest of the season including the Istanbul final where he played 35 minutes and scored Liverpool's second penalty in the shoot-out.

Cissé scored six goals in his first nine matches of the 2005/06 season but the majority of them came against weak opponents in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. Two of his goals came on a big stage in the Super Cup final against CSKA Moscow when he guaranteed a 3-1 victory in extra-time. He didn't command a regular place in the team but two starts inspired winning goals in two consecutive games in the middle of October against Blackburn and Anderlecht. However, Cissé struggled to find any consistency as the season progressed and Rafa was not too happy: "At Auxerre he didn't have any responsibility for defending or the tactics of the team. Now at a big club like Liverpool, he needs to learn that he has to work for his teammates, who are also very good players. He has to understand the difference between a club that plays to win games and a club that plays to win trophies." Cissé scored one goal from the middle of November to the middle of March but finished the season with a flourish. He scored seven goals in his last ten games including the opening goal in the FA Cup final win over West Ham. As Liverpool were in contract discussions with Marseille and Lyon over Cissé's transfer he suffered another double fracture of the tibia and fibula, this time of his right leg, in a friendly for France against China. He missed the World Cup but a loan deal was agreed that took him to Marseille in July 2006. Cissé scored 15 goals in 25 games including two in the cup final against Sochaux which Marseille lost after a penalty shoot-out. After lengthy negotiations, the player was sold to Marseille early in July 2007 for a fee of £6 million. Cissé scored 22 goals in 50 matches for Marseille in 2007/08 but he wanted a return to England where his wife was still living. In August 2008 he signed a one-year loan deal with Sunderland where he played 38 games and scored 11 goals. He struggled for goals in the second half of the season so the Black Cats didn't take up the option to sign him. Cissé returned to Marseille but within a few weeks, the French club had negotiated a £6.8million transfer that took him to Panathinaikos.

Djibril Cissé's 23 league goals helped Panathinaikos to the Greek championship in 2010. His club also won the Greek cup to complete a domestic double. He added another twenty goals in his second full season in Greece and his efficiency secured him a four-year contract with Italian Serie A club Lazio in July 2011. He had only scored five goals in 27 matches when he returned to England a few months later and signed for Queens Park Rangers. Cissé's first few weeks with the west-London club were certainly eventful. He scored on his debut at Aston Villa but was sent off in the next match against Wolves. He then scored against Liverpool before being again dismissed, at Sunderland. On the final day of the season, he scored at Manchester City and although Rangers lost they retained their place in the Premier League because Bolton could only draw at Stoke City. Incredibly, Cissé had either scored or been sent off in the eight matches he played for Rangers between 1 February and 13 May! QPR struggled under Mark Hughes in the 2012/13 season and Cissé, who had only scored one league goal come November, was criticised by a QPR fan on Twitter who claimed Cissé "couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo". Cissé, in turn, responded on the popular social medium: “Come and have a chat big man. When u feel like talking to me face to face just come,” posting QPR’s training-ground address. Cissé was loaned to Al Gharafa in Qatar in January 2013.

Qatar became the fifth different country in which Cissé had played professionally and he made a good start there playing nine times in the Qatar Stars League, scoring once; plus he appeared nine times (four goals) in the AFC Champions League tournament. However, once this loan-spell was over, Cissé left Queens Park Rangers by mutual consent and became a free agent on 1 July 2013. Cissé signed a one-year deal with Russian club Kuban Krasnodar during the summer of 2013 but after playing in twenty-four matches for them, scoring 5 goals, he signed an 18-month deal with French club Bastia on New Year's Day 2014. By the end of his first half-season with the Corsican club he had netted twice in eleven matches and those two goals took his career club total close to the two hundred and fifty mark. In the summer of 2015, Cisse left Bastia and joined Saint Pierroise, who play in the French Indian Ocean territory of La Reunion in the sixth tier of French football, but played just once and announced his retirement from the game in October that year.

In the summer of 2017, Cissé came out of retirement, joining Swiss third-tier side Yverdon Sport. He enjoyed a prolific season, scoring 24 times in 29 appearances. In August 2018 he signed a contract with Italy's Vicenza 1902, a phoenix club of Vicenza. However, their application to join Serie D was refused and he was left in career limbo. Cissé retired from the professional game and began working regularly in the French media, offering analysis on matches for L’Équipe and later for France Télévisions, where he covered the 2022 World Cup and the Coupe de France. Coaching drew him back towards the game in 2021 when he joined Marseille’s youth set-up. Two years later he returned to Auxerre, the club where his senior career had begun, to work with their first team, focusing especially on forwards. Away from the pitch, Cissé developed a second career in music. Under the stage name Tcheba he performed as a DJ at clubs and festivals across Europe. He also pursued fashion projects, running his own clothing lines, and made occasional appearances on French television entertainment shows. Cissé’s post-playing years have been as colourful as his football career. Splitting his time between coaching, broadcasting, music, and fashion, he has remained a distinctive and energetic figure long after leaving the Anfield stage.