Senegal: An elite, unbeaten opponent whose government nonetheless ousted their most successful coach

The 42

a day ago

THE TEAM THAT created history at the 2002 World Cup will on Friday be without their most famous player as they face the team that created headlines at the 2002 World Cup for being without their most famous player.
And this, dear reader, is about all Ireland and Senegal have had to link them in more than 60 years of international football.
Tomorrow's friendly will be the first meeting of the sides. The fact that many European nations are busy with World Cup qualifiers and Nations League finals narrowed Ireland's potential friendly opponents for this window, and Senegal were close to town given they are playing England in a friendly in Nottingham next week.
Senegal will be in Dublin without their most recognisable star, as former Liverpool forward Sadio Mane – now playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia – has asked to be excused from duty.
Also missing is the captain of the 2002 side that went all the way to the quarter-finals in Japan and South Korea, Aliou Cissé.
Cissé was first elevated to the manager's job on an interim basis in 2012, and then returned to the job full-time in 2015. From there he made all manner of history. First, in 2018, his Senegal side became the first team ever eliminated from the World Cup group phase on the fair play rule – accumulating the higher number of cards across their three games – and a year later led Senegal to their first Afcon final since he was captain in 2002, where they were beaten by Algeria.
Sadio Mane celebrates with the Afcon trophy in 2021. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
Two years later, however, they returned to the final once again, and won a penalty shootout against Egypt. It was their first ever continental triumph.
England ended their interest in the last-16 phase of the 2022 World Cup, with a depleted Senegal side beaten 3-0. Cissé, though, retained the confidence of the Senegalese FA and he was supposed to see the team through to the 2026 World Cup.
The government, however, disagreed. Though the notion seems anathema to the European mind, it is common across African football for the government to pay the salary of the national team coach. (The Irish taxpayer may have saved the FAI from insolvency five years ago, but we are not directly covering Heimir Hallgrimsson's salary.)
This practice somehow avoids Fifa's demand that a national football association be free of direct political interference, and so it is the case in Senegal.
The FA had agreed a two-year extension with Cissé last year, only for the government to refuse to pay it, saying Cissé had not achieved his objectives, namely qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup and defending their AFCON title a year later.
The sports ministry acted, they said, out of fear for 'the risk of disaffection between our national team and the Senegalese in general.'
Advertisement
The president of the Senegalese FA said he was 'very sad' to see Cissé leave, and spoke plainly of their opposition to the political decision.
'The agenda of the government is not the same as the agenda of football,' Augustin Senghor told BBC Sport Africa.
'They decided and, unfortunately, we could not oppose it.'
Cissé has been replaced by a former assistant, Pape Thiaw, and it is his job to squeeze the last drops out of Senegal's medal-winning generation, including Mane, centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, and midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye. They are buttressed by a younger generation of talent, which includes Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson, Tottenham's Pape Sarr, and Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara.
Senegal are in a battle even to make the next World Cup, sitting second in their group, a point behind leaders DR Congo, though with a points total currently good enough to make the play-offs.
They remain unbeaten, with three wins and three draws from six matches, and their primary problem has been goalscoring: they have eight goals thus far, though four of them came in a single game against South Sudan and they have dropped points in goalless draws against Togo and Sudan.
They are, however, unbeaten in their last 22 matches, save a penalty shootout loss to Ivory Coast in the last-16 of the 2023 Afcon. In fact, a 1-0 loss to Algeria in a friendly in September 2023 is their only defeat since the World Cup exit to England, stretching across 26 games.
Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson is anticipating the kind of stiff test to ready his side for the World Cup qualifier matches with Portugal later this year.
'If you look at their matches and how they play, massive physicality, I'd say not only speed but running power, they come at you again and again', says Hallgrimsson.
'They look for the space behind you. If you watch Afcon, against a team like Senegal, [opponents] always need to play in a low block, so they are specialists in finding pockets to play into a run into, a third man running in, so we will be tested defensively, massively, in this game if they play like they have done.
'It's amazing for a national team to play 22 games without losing.
'Individual qualities, similar to Portugal, all players can hurt you so one-v-ones will be massively important. Everything happens a little bit quicker, when we need to defend and that's a good step, if we are ready for that it's a good preparation for Hungary and Portugal.
'It's a different kind of opponent, they are looking for spaces behind us and it doesn't happen that often in Europe, normally there are a few passes before the teams play behind us but that's one of the things we need to look at and improve.'
It's fair to say Hallgrimsson does not share the same disapproving opinion of the Senegalese sports ministry.