The Union sportive des Parcelles Assainies is the new terror of women's football in Senegal. The club from the Dakar suburbs has left nothing to its opponents this season. It has achieved the league and national cup double for the first time in its history. A feat that bears the stamp of its coach, Soukèye Cissé. After leading Dakar Sacre-Coeur to the title of D2 champion in 2019, the one who is also assistant coach of Senegal is asserting herself in this profession for which she was predestined.
Soukèye Cissé is one of the new references in women's coaching in Senegal. She is the main architect of the historic double of the Union sportive des Parcelles Assainies (USPA) this season. This physical education teacher is making a name for herself as a coach. A former footballer with the Rufisquois club Médiour where she spent most of her career, Soukèye Cissé could not escape her destiny.
Football, an inescapable destiny
I was born into a family of sportsmen and I am the eldest of six brothers," she told Sport News Africa. I grew up surrounded by men, and my friends were my brothers with whom I played in front of our house. I started playing in the street with my father and my brothers at the Michel Legrand camp in Thiès. That's how I caught the football bug.
The USPA team, winner of the Senegalese league and cup double.
Born to a father who was a trainer at the GMI (Groupement mobile d'intervention) camp in Thiès (72 km from Dakar) and a mother who was an athlete and then a basketball player, Soukèye Cissé has sport in her blood. Very early on in the game, his leadership skills surfaced. "I have always been a leader, a troupe leader, a player with a lot of character and personality," she says. That's why she inherited the captain's armband when she started at the Mediur club.
With the flagship club of Rufisque, she won 3 Senegalese cups (2011, 2012 and 2017). And in 2017, she achieved with her club of all time the double cup and championship of Senegal D1. At the twilight of a beautiful career, Soukèye Cissé must have already suspected that she would still be on the field, but on the bench.
A coaching career launched very early
Ten years before this double as a player of Médiour de Rufisque, Soukèye Cissé launched her coaching career in the Navétanes (popular championship of the districts) with boys under 17 years old. One day when I was going to train with my club, I saw the cadets of my ASC in the Ndiayenne neighbourhood without a coach on the field," recalls Soukèye Cissé. I went to see them and suggested some workshops and left. The next day they came to my house to ask me to coach them.
After initially refusing because she says she has no idea of coaching, she gave in to her father's request to go and help them "as they had come all the way here". She was well advised to do so. In 2007, she led the U.17 of Ndiayenne to the titles of zonal, departmental and regional champion. At first, I was afraid," she admits. But after these three victories in Navétanes, I started to like it and then I said to myself: I have to go and train (as a coach).
She passed her initiator's diploma - amateur. She took part in several women's football coaching courses with Fifa (first skills) in addition to a club administrator course with the Dakar football league. From 2011 to 2014, she joined the CNEPS (National Centre for Physical and Sports Education) in Thiès where she graduated as the top student in her class. A difficult reconciliation with her playing career, but she held on until 2017 when she hung up her boots.
Dakar Sacré-Cœur, from romance to clash
It was with the JA Fass club in 2018 that Soukèye Cissé began her new life as a coach. Her experience in the Navétanes with the boys allows her to handle the pressure. She was then appointed coach of the women's team of Dakar Sacré-Cœur, the club where her husband works. In her first season, she offered the title of 2nd division champion (2018-2019) to the partner academy of Olympique Lyonnais. The following year in the first division, the championship was stopped and then cancelled with the start of the pandemic. And it was already the divorce between Soukèye Cissé and DSC.
The origin? Her husband's premature departure. After my husband's resignation," she says, "they (the club's management) didn't deal with me properly. I couldn't accept that they talked about my husband as if I wasn't there. They were suspicious of me and wanted to put limits on me within the club. And for anyone who knows me, I would never pretend to be comfortable in a situation I was not comfortable with. And in a relationship, be it friendly, romantic or professional, if there is no trust, the relationship has no place." Soukèye Cissé sent her letter of resignation by email to the president Mathieu Chupin.
She then headed for the Aigles de Médina, with whom she flew through the championship in the 2020-2021 season before finishing runner-up in Senegal. And like a Sphinx, she bounced back to USPA. The Parcelles club lost its coach Mbayang Thiam, who was appointed as the new coach of the Senegalese U17s. It was the latter who asked her to replace her on the bench of the blue and white team with whom she won the championship in the final (2-0) against Dakar Sacré-Cœur, the outgoing champion.
The first major title of her young career and a symbol for the club she left with a bang. And as happiness never comes alone, she did a double by winning the Senegalese cup 3 days later by dominating Kaolack FC in the final (4-0). By bringing Marème Babou and Hapsatou Malado Diallo, two players who were entrusted to her by their parents and other players she managed to convince to follow her to USPA, the title seemed obvious to her.
Soukèye Cissé says: "When I arrived and the president was talking about maintaining the team, I immediately told him that I was not here to maintain the team but to win the title. I came from the Eagles of Medina with the status of runner-up 2020-2021 for a goal less than the champion (DSC, ed.). If it's only for the maintenance, I stay with the Eagles with whom I can be champion. History has proven her right, and more than she could have imagined with the double and a season without a single defeat.
On the Lionesses' staff for the Women's AFCON
Soukèye Cissé's apprenticeship as a coach is taking a new turn as she joins the staff of the Senegalese women's national team. "It is a good experience that allows me to make an objective analysis of what is the current high level of women's football, its positive points and what could be improved to better support the Senegalese elite," she said.
After having missed the AFCON in 2012 when she was taking the entrance exam to the CNEPS to become a PE teacher, Soukèye Cissé hopes that this generation will be able to raise Senegalese women's football to the highest level of the continent. This new participation in the African Cup for Senegal after the first in 2012, is an important step to reduce the gap with the best nations of women's football.
Ten years after the 2012 AFCON, we are making progress," said coach Soukèye. It is not yet the top of African women's football if you look at the nations that eliminated us in U17 and U20 (Ghana and Nigeria, editor's note). So it's useful to give our youngest internationals extra experience by giving them the benefit of a competition like this."
Senegal is in Group A with Morocco, Uganda and Burkina Faso, and their ambition is to reach the semi-finals and have a chance of qualifying for the Women's World Cup for the first time.
Committed to the development of women's football
Concerned about participating in the development of women's football, from detection to quality training and the establishment of an environment conducive to performance, she created her academy entirely dedicated to women's football. Souky Academy is for this activist of women's sport an opportunity to "participate in the improvement of the female condition". Soukèye is eager to obtain her affiliation and start producing the next generation of the Senegalese women's national team.
A CAF C License holder, Soukèye Cissé hopes to use her expertise to develop future female football stars. She says: "The players are there. It is up to us to find them, to convince their parents, to do what is necessary in terms of quality of work and environment, without forgetting the educational aspect to ensure that they have a career after sport. They are the mothers, sisters and aunts of future champions.
