Is Djibril Cissé the Unluckiest Footballer in the World?

It’s difficult to feel sorry for millionaire footballers. First of all, they’re millionaires. Second, they get to play football every day. But when you’ve had luck like Djibril Cissé has the last few years then it’s violin time. The Frenchman with the multiple silly haircuts is currently trapped on the bench at Olympique Marseille, with coach Eric Gerets preferring to play one up front, that one being Mamadou Niang and not Cissé. A few years ago it would have been unthinkable for Cissé to be struggling for a game anywhere in Ligue 1, but after some horrendous luck that’s where he finds himself. Now Marseille have opened the door for Cissé to leave in January, and if he wants to play some first team football he’s going to have to walk through.

Cissé was and possibly still is a pacy, powerful striker. He bagged 70 goals in 128 games for Auxerre, which led then Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier to see him as the answer to his goalscoring prayers at Liverpool. A £14 million transfer was agreed, and a bright future of Premier League goalscoring looked almost guaranteed. But then it all started to go wrong.

First, Houllier was canned by Liverpool and Cissé found himself working for Rafa Benitez. The Spaniard preferred to use Cissé’s pace down the right wing instead of up front. Then, just 19 games into his Liverpool career the Frenchman suffered a horrific leg break while playing against Blackburn. Watch the video below only if you’ve got a stomach made of iron. It’s nasty. You’ve been warned.

When your game is all about pace, the last thing you need is a broken leg. With pins inserted in the leg Cissé made a relatively quick comeback and even managed to play again before the end of the season, scoring a penalty in Liverpool’s insanely dramatic Champions League win over Milan. The next season Benitez had him back on the right wing and Cissé was in and out of form. Clearly unwanted by Benitez, a move back to France with Marseille was agreed. And he’d still made the France World Cup squad, so at least our man had something to look forward to. Until it happened again. Once more, be warned that this is not a pretty sight.

This time it was Cissé’s right leg. “He screamed in horrific pain,” said Thierry Henry. “I was right next to him when it happened.” How many pacy forwards break both legs and keep playing? he missed the World Cup obviously, but to Marseille’s credit they didn’t back out of signing him and took the Liverpool man with two broken legs on loan for the 2006/7 season. Once again Cissé made a pretty quick comeback and was back and scoring by October 2006. An impressive season (14 goals in 23 games) with OM led to a permanent eight million Euro transfer in the summer of 2007, and the career looked to be back on track. But once again the manager that signed him, Albert Emon, was replaced. Eric Gerets came in with his lone striker system and Cissé was back on the bench.

So now he’s free to leave the question is where should he go? Even after two broken legs Cissé’s still got plenty to offer someone. And after having so much of his career interrupted by broken legs he just needs a team that will guarantee him some first team football. I still think he could make a go of it in the Premiership with the right club. Maybe not with Liverpool or any other top team, but somewhere not far behind. My choice for Cissé would be Portsmouth, where Harry Redknapp’s going to be desparate for strikers come January, with Kanu and John Utaka both heading off to the African Cup of Nations. Wherever Cissé winds up in January, I wish two things for him. 1) No more broken legs, and 2) that the manager that signs him gets to keep his job.

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Category: French Ligue 1