DIAMNIADIO, Senegal — Standing on the sidelines of Senegal’s brand-new nationwide stadium, Aliou Cissé, the most important fan of his personal crew, waved his arms at 50,000 followers, exhorting them to cheer even louder, his signature dreadlocks bouncing on his shoulders.
Fans roared again, clapping and blowing their vuvuzelas at a extra deafening pitch. Minutes later, Senegal defeated its fiercest rival, Egypt, incomes a qualification for soccer’s World Cup, which begins this November in Qatar.
“When we are together, Senegal wins,” a grinning Mr. Cissé, 46, mentioned at a postgame information convention. Or, as he likes to repeat in Wolof, one of many nation’s nationwide languages, “Mboloo Mooy gagner” — “Unity brings victory.”
If Senegal feels proud and patriotic nowadays, it’s thanks largely to its nationwide crew — and to Mr. Cissé, a former skilled participant who has reinvented Senegalese soccer and constructed what’s presently the perfect crew in Africa.
“The barometer of the Senegalese society today is soccer,” Mr. Cissé mentioned in a current interview with The New York Times in Diamniadio, a newly constructed metropolis on the outskirts of Dakar the place the brand new stadium sits. “People watch us play and they’re proud to be Senegalese, proud to be African.”
Mr. Cissé led the squad that received the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this 12 months, the nation’s first soccer title. In doing so, he proved to the Senegalese those who one among their very own might succeed the place nobody else had.
European managers have lengthy coached many African nationwide groups, together with Senegal’s, however that’s altering, a shift embodied by Mr. Cissé.
From Algeria to Zimbabwe, Sudan to Burkina Faso, a rising era of African managers are constructing a brand new teaching tradition on the continent. Sixteen groups now have native coaches, and the three sub-Saharan African groups going to Qatar later this 12 months — Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal — all have former nationwide gamers as managers.
“More and more professional players on the continent want to be coaches,” mentioned Ferdinand Coly, a former teammate of Mr. Cissé’s. “Local expertise is gaining ground.”
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The 32-team match kicks off in Qatar on Nov. 21.
Although Mr. Cissé maintains that European coaches have accomplished so much for African groups, that period is fading.
Born within the southern Senegalese area of Casamance in 1976, Mr. Cissé moved to France when he was 9 and grew up within the suburbs of Paris, one of many world’s finest swimming pools of soccer expertise.
His trajectory is much like many African gamers who have been raised in Europe or joined youth academies there. “When I was out, I was French, but at home I was truly Senegalese,” Mr. Cissé mentioned about talking Wolof and following the household’s customs whereas in France.
Mr. Cissé joined the youth academy of Lille, in northern France, at 14, and performed in French and English golf equipment within the Nineties and 2000s, together with the French powerhouse Paris St.-Germain, Portsmouth and Birmingham City, which competed in England’s high league.
At the 2002 World Cup, he captained a Senegalese squad collaborating in its first World Cup — one which surprised France, the world champions on the time, in a shock victory that many nonetheless discuss with with heat nostalgia. Senegal reached the quarterfinals, the crew’s largest achievement to this point within the competitors.
As a coach, Mr. Cissé now appeals to each Senegalese gamers raised of their native nation, and to those that moved to France of their youth like him, constructing a bridge between the squad’s “locals” and its “binationals,” as they’re referred to among the many crew’s employees.
It has been a protracted street to success. When Mr. Cissé took over the crew in 2015, Senegal had been performing poorly on the Africa Cup of Nations and had didn’t qualify for the final three World Cup editions. Mr. Cissé’s predecessors have been fired one after one other.
Seven years later, Mr. Cissé, nicknamed “El Tactico,” for his environment friendly however restrained method to the sport, will convey Senegal to its third World Cup and his second one as a coach. The period when African groups have been “observing,” is over, he says, and one will win the coveted trophy at some point.
“Why not us?” he mentioned.
Régis Bogaert, a former French youth coach of Mr. Cissé’s at Lille and now his deputy on the Senegalese crew, mentioned Mr. Cissé had conveyed a way of mission to his gamers. “He is making many people want to be the next Aliou Cissé in Senegal and in Africa,” Mr. Bogaert mentioned.
Soccer, a nationwide ardour, is in every single place in Senegal, whether or not within the youth academies nurturing future abilities, or on Dakar’s seashores, empty development websites and pitches dotting town’s corniche alongside the Atlantic Ocean.
“To be the coach of the national team today is to be a politician,” mentioned Mr. Cissé, who usually repeats that he lives in Senegal and feels the nation’s strain each day, not like his gamers or the overseas coaches who dwell overseas. “It’s about knowing the economy, the culture, the education and history of your country.”
His humorousness and style tastes have additionally helped together with his reputation: Mr. Cissé usually wears shiny white sneakers and thick black sq. glasses, and he retains his dreadlocks below a New York Yankees or Team Senegal cap, giving him the air of a cool father. He has 5 youngsters, whom he makes sound as difficult to handle because the nationwide crew.
If Mr. Cissé has shared Senegal’s largest successes, he has additionally skilled a few of the nation’s worst traumas. In 2002, he misplaced 11 family members in a shipwreck that killed greater than 1,800 passengers off the coasts of Senegal and Gambia.
Senegal’s victory on the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this 12 months got here 20 years after Mr. Cissé missed a penalty within the ultimate of the identical match, depriving the crew of its first trophy again then — a reminiscence that lengthy haunted his nights, he mentioned.
Since then, Senegal has been having happier days on the pitch, and the nationwide delight surrounding the crew was on full show final month when Senegal defeated Egypt in a penalty shootout in its first sport in Diamniadio’s stadium.
Some followers mentioned that they had slept outdoors the stadium the night time earlier than to verify they acquired the perfect seats. Hours earlier than kickoff, 1000’s extra lined as much as enter, the sounds of whistles and drums filling the air.
“It’s a great day for Senegal,” mentioned Sally Diassy, a French-Senegalese 30-year-old who lives in France and mentioned she was visiting Senegal to assist her favourite crew.
The jubilation on show after the win echoed the triumphant return of the Senegalese gamers after they received the Africa Cup of Nations in February. Tens of 1000’s of followers greeted them as they paraded within the streets of Dakar. President Macky Sall rewarded the crew and Mr. Cissé’s employees with some land within the capital and in Diamniadio, together with about $83,000, an exorbitant sum that set off some minor protests in a rustic the place practically half of the inhabitants lives below the poverty line.
But some gamers have additionally given again: Sadio Mané, the crew’s star, has constructed a hospital in his native village. Kalidou Koulibaly, the captain, purchased ambulances for his father’s village.
“Players want to be role models in their own country,” mentioned Salif Diallo, a veteran soccer journalist who has adopted Mr. Cissé’s profession as a participant and a coach. “This team is changing the perception that Senegalese have of themselves.”
Those who know Mr. Cissé say that when he’s accomplished with the nationwide crew, he’ll need to play a larger position for his nation.
“I’ve tried to set an example,” Mr. Cissé mentioned of his profession as each participant and coach. “If a Senegalese player moves to Birmingham or Montpelier or wherever I’ve played tomorrow, I hope he will be welcomed because they will remember that Aliou Cissé was a good guy.”