{"id":17817,"date":"2013-01-21T16:47:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T21:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=17817"},"modified":"2013-01-21T17:15:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T22:15:31","slug":"cisse-on-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=17817","title":{"rendered":"Cisse Ready to Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Revolution<\/a>

Revolution midfielder Kalifa Cisse was brought in during the offseason to lend his experience to the club – both on and off the field. (Photo: Chris Aduama\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution midfielder Kalifa Cisse wasn’t just looking for another club when he found himself out of contract last year.<\/p>\n

At 29, the Malian International\u00a0had\u00a0already\u00a0established himself in the\u00a0English\u00a0Premier League and the Portuguese Liga. It stood to reason that he could’ve continued his career in Europe.<\/p>\n

But Cisse didn’t wasn’t in search of just another opportunity. No, it ran deeper than that.<\/p>\n

“It was time for a new challenge,” Cisse said after the Revolution’s first preseason training . “That’s why I didn’t think twice when I signed with the Revolution.”<\/p>\n

The genesis of Cisse’s arrival in Foxboro can be traced back last fall.\u00a0The veteran midfielder joined the club for a trial, hoping to seize the chance to play in the United States.<\/p>\n

Of course, what he\u00a0showed on the training pitch was important. But Heaps and Burns were also looking at the person just as much as the player.<\/p>\n

“During that process, we really saw someone who wanted to help lead this team,” Heaps said. “We want to have him (exert) his influence and\u00a0let the locker room develop a (positive) mentality.”<\/p>\n

In speaking with\u00a0Cisse,\u00a0Heaps and Burns\u00a0both\u00a0believed that\u00a0the former Bristol City midfielder was just the man for the job. Now, it was just a matter of\u00a0convincing him\u00a0to buy into what the Revolution were doing.<\/p>\n

Burns\u00a0worked with Cisse and his agent to hammer out a deal. In addition to Burns, goalkeeper coach Remi Roy, who spoke Cisse’s native French, kept in touch with the defensive midfielder, all in the hopes of getting him on board.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t an overnight process,” head coach Jay Heaps said. “It took a few weeks. Credit Michael Burns and Remi Roy for really closing the gap on (the negotiations). And credit (Cisse) and his desire to be here. I think that’s something that was shown during the negotiations.”<\/p>\n

Granted,\u00a0he probably could have found\u00a0the challenge he sought just about\u00a0anywhere in MLS. But the way\u00a0the defensive midfielder\u00a0tells it, there was something about New England that piqued his interest.<\/p>\n

“This is a solid club with a winning mentality and they really want to improve,” Cisse said. “They have a lot of ambition and that’s exciting for me.”<\/p>\n

Another thing that the Revolution have of a lot of: youth. With a strong mix of young players on the roster,\u00a0the seasoned\u00a0veteran\u00a0has already had a number of them approach him for advice and insight.<\/p>\n

“The young lads have a lot of potential, but they need some help,” Cisse said. “That’s why I’m excited about this challenge. It gives me (even)\u00a0more motivation to try to help them.”<\/p>\n

Just as important as guiding the youngsters, Cisse will also be counted upon to stabilize the defense and midfield. The mid-season trade of Shalrie Joseph left a gaping hole in the middle of the park.\u00a0While Clyde Simms performed admirably in Joseph’s absence, it’s clear that the team\u00a0needed to find someone with traits similar to Joseph.<\/p>\n

Enter Cisse, who regularly featured as defensive midfielder for Reading and Bristol City. Moreso, at 6-2, 180lbs, Cisse has the frame to withstand – and perhaps more improtantly, dole out – the punishment a defensive midfielder typically experiences in an increasingly physical league like MLS.<\/p>\n

Pressure? You could say that.\u00a0However, it appears Cisse is simply taking it all in stride.<\/p>\n

So far, Cisse has been all smiles in camp, which opened on Saturday. Chatting with fellow French-speaking teammates Dimitry Imbongo and Saer Sene, Cisse is clearly at ease with the decision to come to New England.<\/p>\n

He does, however, have one\u00a0piece of advice for\u00a0the\u00a0rest of his teammates.<\/p>\n

“Just work hard,”\u00a0Cisse said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revolution coaching staff hopes that Kalifa Cisse can bring a stabilizing presence to the club – both on and off the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[238,234,49,235,237,1274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Cisse1.png?fit=480%2C266","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17817"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17839,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817\/revisions\/17839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}