Will Ibrahima Cissé be the overachiever of the new season? In any case, the Schalke defender played an outstanding role for Mali at the Africa Under-23 Championship.
In the semi-final of the Africa Under-23 Championship against hosts Morocco, Ibrahima Cissé had to be substituted while still completely exhausted. Rumours circulated that the Schalke player had even injured himself. FC Schalke 04 immediately denied this. In the match for third place on Friday evening, Ibrahima Cissé again played 90 minutes for his home country Mali.
To support him and to express his appreciation, Schalke’s sports director Peter Knäbel, who was still at the S04’s test match at Bocholt Hünting (2:2) on Thursday evening, travelled to Morocco on Friday. Before the game, he visited Cissé in the team hotel and certainly discussed with him how to proceed after his holiday.
In the evening, he then watched the match in Tangier at the stadium. And it was worth it. While Mali had lost the penalty shoot-out against Morocco in the semi-final, things turned out better this time. Mali defeated Guinea 4:3 to claim the consolation prize.
Cissé played 90 minutes on the right side in central defence. In injury time, he saved his team’s place in the penalty shoot-out with an alert action when he knocked the ball away in the 92nd minute in the greatest of emergencies before the opposing striker, who was completely free, was ready to shoot.
Schalke board member Knäbel visits Cissé in Morocco
The lanky centre-back did not score in the subsequent penalty shoot-out. But he celebrated all the more exuberantly after the 4:3 victory. For Mali, third place also means qualification for the Olympic Football Tournament.
Due to his sporting success with the national team, however, Cissé will miss the Königsblauen training camp. He will only return to Gelsenkirchen after a holiday and then join the team training.
The 22-year-old could be the surprise in the squad of the Knappen this season. Schalke coach Thomas Reis thinks highly of the central defender anyway. He doesn’t even know yet how good he is, Reis once said about him.
Schalke looking for reinforcement for the defence
Nevertheless, the S04 coach also knows that he cannot rely on Cissé, who was mainly used in the U23 last season, or also fellow defender Leo Greiml to take a step forward in terms of performance this season.
“The priority is clearly defensive,” Reis said after the test match in Bocholt when asked how he planned to use the additional money made available by the sale of Marius Bülter. And if Cissé, who played in all the games for Mali and gained important experience, were to explode in terms of performance, Reis would have one more alternative.