THE BOY’S A BIT

THE SENEGALESE KING OF STROPS

Saliou Ciss

Position Left-back Age 26

Nationality Senegalese Club Valenciennes

Nutter credentials

Ciss left his homeland in 2010 to move to Tromso in the far north of Norway, some 200 miles past the Arctic circle. But if that left him very cold, it didn’t exactly result in a cool head. In five and a half years in Europe, the Senegal international has racked up eight red cards, including six in two seasons with French second-tier side Valenciennes. A particularly feisty scissor challenge from behind did the job against Ajaccio.

Maddest moment

Not content with being sent off twice early in this 2015-16 campaign, Ciss surpassed himself with a remarkable strop upon being dismissed again, at Brest. Having been left in a heap after a clattering from an opponent, the Dakar native was being lifted onto a stretcher when the referee harshly decided Ciss had committed the foul (it must be his reputation), and showed him a second yellow card. A furious Ciss flipped the stretcher over in disgust before turning on his team-mates as they tried to calm him down, squaring up to them and hurling abuse for almost a minute. It took three players to eventually wrestle him down the tunnel. That’s how you make a scene.

He said

“I have no words to explain my indefensible behaviour. I am deeply sorry. I promise to be exemplary on the pitch now.” Chance would be a fine thing. Ciss was suspended for four matches and didn’t return to the side when his ban was up.