Senegal boss Aliou Cisse lauds upsurge in local coaches

Trailblazing Senegal head tactician Aliou Cisse is immensely impressed with the number of local coaches getting involved in the game in the continent.

In the just concluded 2022 Qatar World Cup Qualifiers, Cisse was one of the four African coaches who were able to successfully lead their nations to grab four out of the five tickets available to the prestigious quadrennial tournament, an uptick from the previous editions held.

Leading the likes of Rigobert Song (Cameroon), Atto Ado (Ghana) and Jalel Kadri (Tunisia), Cisse, who led the Lions of Teranga to their first ever Africa Cup of Nations success in the 2021 edition, expressed his delight at the growing numbers of qualified personnel who continue to benefit from advanced learning from world football governing body FIFA.

“I am a local coach today, as I was born and grew up here. Although I lived in Europe for years, I am still African and Senegalese. The fact that FIFA has come today and keeps supporting the development of our coaches here is really a great source of pride for us. It proves that African football has really taken charge of its affairs and that FIFA has put all this together in order to improve the situation in certain federations and their technical departments,” the head coach said.

“In terms of coaching and coaches, we realised that we had to progress as we were not good enough to coach in Europe or be in charge of our national teams. In that regard, too, if you look at the number of foreign coaches at the 2019 AFCON compared to the 2022 AFCON, you notice that the number of homegrown coaches increased. It means that we have been training technicians, and skilled technicians. Now, I think it is important to keep going further in terms of enhancing our techniques and abilities and strengthening our technical departments,” Cisse added.

Having led the Senegal under-23 side from 2013-15, he was promoted to the senior team where he has stayed ever since – a remarkably long tenure in the topsy-turvy world of African national team coaches.

Under his inspired leadership, Senegal have reappeared on the football map. They qualified for their second World Cup in 2018, reached their second AFCON final the following year and, in February, went one better as they won their first AFCON title, sparking joyous celebrations in the country.

Additionally, Cisse encouraged for more federations across the continent to continue putting their trust in their own as long as they have the requisite skills for the job.

"We are capable of being great players, but we’re also capable of thinking, planning and putting things in place, and as things move forward nowadays, we can see that other federations are putting their faith in their homegrown products with the help of FIFA, of course, who are there to help those coaches to improve. If there are competent coaches locally, I don’t see why you should go looking elsewhere; you should put your faith in them,"

"That is our fight, because I think that in order to manage a national team, you need to know the reality of the country and be highly competent in a technical and tactical sense; but in reality, it is also important to know about the country’s past. For me, if you do not know about the past, it is difficult to talk about the future," he concluded.