Aliou Cissé (born 24 March 1976) is a Senegalese professional football coach and former player who was the recent manager of the Senegal national team.

[9] Cissé returned late to pre-season training in July 2003, which led manager Steve Bruce to place him on the transfer list.

At the end of the season, he signed for Portsmouth for £300,000 on a two-year contract, despite a strong transfer link to Premiership rivals Bolton Wanderers.

The transfer was ultimately one of several included in the Stevens report released in June 2007, which expressed concerns of corruption within English football.

[14] Cissé was also part of the Senegal team who were the runners-up in the 2002 African Cup of Nations, but was one of the players who missed a penalty during the shootout in the final as they lost to Cameroon.

[17] Ultimately, Senegal were knocked out in the group stage of the tournament after becoming the first team in FIFA World Cup history to be eliminated due to fair play tiebreaker rules.

[26] Cissé lost several members of his family in the MV Le Joola ferry disaster that occurred off the coast of The Gambia on 26 September 2002.

[27][28] To honour the lives lost, Cissé participated in a charity match between Senegal and Nigeria that raised money for the families of the more than 1,000 reported victims.