Senegal Part Ways With AFCON-winning Coach Cisse After 9 Years

Aliou Cisse has departed his position as Senegal’s national team coach after the country’s football body, Senegal Football Federation (FSF), failed to renew his contract.

The 48-year-old spent nine years as Senegal’s manager and won the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in February 2022.

Cisse’s wages were paid by the Senegal government, but the nation’s sports ministry, under President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s new government, has decided not to extend Cisse’s contract.

The FSF said on Wednesday that Cisse’s failure to win the 2023 edition of AFCON alongside their exit from the 2022 World Cup at the round-of-16 stage — losing 3-0 to England — were among the reasons for his exit.

The statement added that Cisse’s departure was also related to the “regression of our national team in the FIFA rankings and the risk of disaffection between our national team and the Senegalese people in general.”

Cisse, who won 35 caps for Senegal between 1999 and 2005, was appointed the nation’s assistant manager in 2012 before a stint as caretaker manager from February of that year until April 2012.

He spent time as Senegal’s under-23 manager between 2012 and 2015 before becoming manager of the senior team in March 2015.

Since being knocked out of AFCON 2023 on penalties by Ivory Coast in January, Senegal are unbeaten in their six games —winning four and drawing two.

They are next in action against Malawi on October 11 in the next AFCON qualification series.