Djibril Cissé is one of football's best known journeymen - as well known for his time at Marseille as for his seasons in England with Liverpool. Now, after three years without a club, the 40-year-old Frenchman has a new club, as he has signed for fourth-division Panathinaikos Chicago.
Cissé left Swiss third-division team Yverdon in 2018 and has been without a club since, but the Chicago club announced his signing on Twitter earlier this afternoon.
Once Green, Aways Green. pic.twitter.com/ohcrYg3PJI
— PAO Chicago (@chicago_pao) April 12, 2021
Cissé's career has so far been defined by his "journeyman" tag, his consistently dazzling hairstyles, and his exciting style of play - though he may, unfortunately, be as well known for his multiple leg breaks as he is for his goalscoring.
Cissé has played for three English clubs, most notably a two year spell at Liverpool. He was one of the three Liverpool players to score a penalty in the shootout against Milan in the famous 2005 Champions League final. He later went on to play under Roy Keane at Sunderland for a season in 2008-09.
He had his final spell in England as part of the QPR team that finished bottom of the 2012-13 Premier League. It was quite an achievement - the squad also featured Julio César, José Bosingwa, Park Ji-Sung, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Loic Remy, but somehow managed only four wins all season. Cissé didn't even finish the season with the club, leaving on loan in January to play in Qatar.
Amazingly, Panathinaikos Chicago are not even the first team called "Panathinaikos" that Cissé has played for. Between his spells with Sunderland and QPR, he spent two years in Athens with Panathinaikos, during which he publicly sparred with referees and called Olympiacos fans "barbarians".
There has rarely been a dull moment in the career of Djibril Cissé. A move to a fourth-division side in the USA, with the same name as a team he previously played for in Greece, is about as on brand for a football player as you can get. We had no intention of watching any fourth-tier American football this year, but we might just keep an eye to see how the Frenchman gets on.
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