It’s Saturday, May 25, and Chattanooga Red Wolves SC Forward Abdoulaye “Yaya” Cisse is weaving his way between Greenville defenders with ease, like he has done it thousands of times.
When Cisse is on the field, he looks at home, as if there is no other place he wants to be. However, home for Cisse isn’t on the soccer field. In fact, it’s not even in Chattanooga or the United States.
Home for Cisse is some 5300 miles away in Northern Africa.
Born in the Ivory Coast, Cisse lived with his mom and siblings there for the first decade of his life. It wasn’t an easy time during Cisse’s childhood as a Civil War raged on in the country with a lot of the action coming right next to where Cisse lived.
“It was pretty bad,” Cisse said. “We were in a Civil War between the government and the army, and we lived right next to an army base. So during the day, we had to stay inside because there was shooting. Then, in the evening we would go outside and get some food and then come back in and wait until the shooting would stop.”
Hidden away during most of the day, Cisse wasn’t able to spend the early part of his life being a normal kid and doing normal kid things like running around and playing every sport imaginable.
However, when the smoke would clear, there was one thing he liked to go outside and do with his siblings and other kids who lived close by.
“Growing up in the Ivory Coast, we had two sports that you could play and that was basketball and soccer,” Cisse said. “Basketball was hard so I played soccer and have played before I can remember walking or running. It was the only thing I could play during those hard times. Where we lived was gated, so when we could we would go out there and play.”
A country known for having quality soccer players, Cisse grew up watching and idolizing the likes of Chelsea legend Didier Drogba and Man City star Yaya Toure. Playing different positions than those two though, Cisse instead shaped his game after another Ivory Coast star.
“I try to play like Gervinho, who is playing in Italy right now,” Cisse said. “Just trying to dribble like him and help my teammates out like he helps his out.”
With tensions still high in the Ivory Coast when Cisse turned 11, his father, who lived in Dallas, Texas at the time, had seen enough and travelled to the country with one goal in mind: convince Cisse and his mother to have him move to the United States with him.
Cisse’s father saw the potential in his son and so did his mother who sent him off to live with his dad in order to have better opportunities for pursuing the sport.
Moving to Dallas was a culture shock to Cisse who never had the ability to do whatever he wanted to do in the Ivory Coast.
“Everything is strict in the Ivory Coast,” Cisse said. “You get up and do everything that you are told. When you have a little time, you go out and play but, when the lights go out, you have to go inside. When I came here, you can go out and do whatever you want. When you’re 16, you can drive and stuff like that. It’s just very different.”
Knowing zero people when he moved to the United States, Cisse used soccer to connect with the kids he went to school with. Those connections helped him not only on the soccer field but also in class as they helped him learn the language.
On the soccer field before moving to Texas, Cisse had been a goalkeeper. But an early conversation with his father after moving in 2011, moved him to the field where people began to take notice.
His play on the field eventually landed him at Eastern Florida State in 2015. Cisse netted nine goals in his two years there but was put in more of a defensive role instead of an attacking role which is where he saw himself being.
After those two years in Florida, Cisse transferred to Fort Hays State in Kansas. Transitioning to more of an attacking role there, Cisse exploded on the scene his first year in 2017, scoring nine goals and was a unanimous selection for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) First Team. During one stretch that season, Cisse broke the school record as he found the net in six consecutive games.
“When I got to Fort Hays, they put me up top and had me just scoring goals,” Cisse said. “I was a defensive position in Florida, but when I got to Fort Hays they told me to stay on the wing or up top and we’ll get the ball to you so that is what I did.”
After another season ended with his second selection for the MIAA First team, Cisse bounced around multiple professional teams before returning to school where he was going to try and finish up getting his degree. Cisse told his old college coach to keep an eye out for him about any professional teams that he could join after he finished up his school work.
Knowing Dalton Red Wolves SC head coach Drew Courtney, Cisse’s college coach got him a tryout which led him to joining the USL League Two side.
However, Cisse wasn’t on the Dalton team for long. Before playing one match, he was called up to the Chattanooga squad, starting both games since making the jump up.
“It was so big (getting called up),” Cisse said. “I knew that I had a chance to get called up, but I had no idea that it was going to be this soon.”
Now with Chattanooga and living in the United States for 10 years, Cisse has become adapted to the freedom that comes with living in America that he did not have in the Ivory Coast.
But that hasn’t stopped Cisse from thinking about returning to his true home sometime in the near future.
“I want to get back big time,” Cisse said. “My schedule hasn’t allowed it with school and playing. But now that I am done with school, I can and am trying to go back during the offseason.”
Fans can catch Cisse in action this Saturday, June 1 as the team hosts FC Toronto II, a team operated by MLS side Toronto FC, at David Stanton Field. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. The match marks the first of three meetings between the two clubs. For tickets, visit chattredwolves.com/tickets.
