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Aliou Cissé led Senegal to their first-ever continental title in February.
Senegal coach Aliou Cissé said international football – and the Africa Cup of Nations in particular – should never play second fiddle to the club’s commitments and ‘challenged’ Napoli not to buy any African players.
The 46-year-old’s comments come following Napoli owner and chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis said the Italian club would avoid signing other African players unless they agreed to sit out the biennial tournament .
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“A football player can play for 12 teams, for example, but will only have one national team,” Cisse tells BBC Sport Africa.
“Clubs will never be above our flag and our national teams. And every Senegalese who plays in Europe, wherever he is, if he is competent I will call him to defend the colors of the nation.
“I have a lot of respect for (De Laurentiis) but I challenge them to try not to sign African players.”
The Nations Cup schedule – traditionally contested in January and February – has led to repeated disputes with European clubs forced to release players mid-season.
Napoli have lost defender Kalidou Koulibaly – who captained Senegal to triumph in the 2021 Nations Cup held this year in Cameroon – and midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, called up for the tournament last season and the pair missed six club games.
“Unacceptable comments”
The Confederation of African Football (Caf), the continent’s governing body, said it was “appalled” by the “irresponsible and unacceptable comments” made by De Laurentiis, and called on its European counterpart UEFA to open an investigation. disciplinary action once morest the 73-year-old man.
“Are we to assume that (De Laurentiis) is going to include similar restrictive conditions for players from South America, Asia and other confederations prohibiting them from playing in their continental competitions?” of the Caf.
Koulibaly spent eight years at Napoli before joining Chelsea last month and responded to De Laurentiis’ comments saying it’s important to ‘respect everyone’.
“If he thinks the team can play without African players, that’s up to him,” said the centre-back. “But I think not everyone has the same idea as him at the club, because I know their supporters and they don’t think like that.”
“Obviously the clubs are afraid of the Nations Cup, but it’s important for our country and for our continent,” added coach Cissé.
“The president of Napoli is an important character. I met him once and just by his handshake you might tell he is a serious and honest man.”
“Thank you Aliou Cissé may God keep you with an iron health, a lot of success full of success. you said it all“writes Ibrahima Ly.
Another netizen, Koudous Sare, writes “Strength to you Aliou Cissé you the Senegalese defends you each time the interests of africa and above all your country you are worthy of africa.”-
“Thank you very much coach for this good reply and if they are sure of themselves that they accept the challenge”, writes Amina Sy.
“But this man is not attacking the right person, the players, the African federations have nothing to do with it, they are not the ones who set the dates for the competitions that he is attacking FIFA”, also notes Moustapha Faye.
Another, Luc Luckin, writes “The debate always comes back to the development of the continent in all areas. When real progress is made, when our championships will train and see the birth of real talents and geniuses like in Latin America, we will see if the lack of respect will continue.”
“Thank you el tactico, we must be respected by A or by B, Africa is essential and inseparable from the rest of the world”writes Abdaziz Jalloh.
Cissé wants a “good collaboration” with the clubs
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Cisse (right) was named African Men’s National Coach of the Year for 2021-22 last month.
De Laurentiis has said he will only sign African players in the future if they sign a waiver stating they will not take part in the Africa Cup of Nations – the next one is scheduled for early 2024 in Ivory Coast .
Cissé has been in charge of Senegal since 2015, leading the Teranga Lions to back-to-back World Cup qualifiers and a maiden continental title.
But the former Paris Saint-Germain player believes African countries are singled out by European clubs when their players are called up for international matches.
“Why would the debate only exist when it comes to African players?” adds Cisse.
“When a Brazilian needs his federation, there is no debate. And yet we are five hours from Europe. In South America they are 17-18 hours from Europe – but there is no debate.
“Clubs should discuss and share ideas with these players to find the best solution to help both national teams and clubs.
“We don’t fight the clubs. I spent seven years here, I always tried to have a good collaboration with the clubs.”
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Cisse and the Senegal team were mobbed by fans as they returned home from their Africa Cup of Nations title.
Cisse says he received a negative attitude towards the Nations Cup when he went to a European club to convince a player to represent Senegal.
“I met the coach and the sporting director, then they said to me, kindly, extremely politely: ‘Your competition is excellent, but to be honest, we don’t care. What interests us is to have this boy at the end of the season because he represents 25 million euros to play in the Champions League,” he said.
“I can understand, I’m not shocked at all. But they can understand that when the nation is within its rights, we are allowed to call our players.
“They can believe what they want but they should let us arrange things the way we want.”
