Former Champions League winner Djibril Cisse has completed his costless transfer to Bastia after his contract with Russian side Kuban Krasnodar was ended by mutual consent.
The 32-year-old striker has spent 4 years away from France’s top division after a stint with Marseille which ended in 2009. Since then he has appeared for Sunderland, Panathinaikos, QPR, Al-Gharafa and Kuban Krasnodar. One team he hasn’t played for recently is his national side, France. Cisse made his debut for Les Bleus in 2002 and earned 41 caps, scoring 9 in the process but his last appearance came against Albania back in 2011. He is clearly passionate about his country and announced on his arrival in Coscia "I love les Bleus and I will do all I can to rejoin them."
The striker will first have to perform well in Ligue 1 to impress France coach Didier Deschamps and Bastia will give his a good platform to do so. Bastia are currently languishing in 13th place, 1 point away from the top half. This is somewhere the fans and their new arrival hope they will finish come the end of the season. He told us "I'm ambitious. We have what it takes to be in the top 10. That's a completely reasonable and achievable goal.”
To call himself ambitious is an understatement. In his first interview since signing he also underlined yet another target he wishes to achieve this season and that is scoring his 100th goal in Ligue 1. “To be honest, bagging my 100th Ligue 1 goal is very important to me," he claimed.
He went onto say "I remember that when I was young, I would look my big brother Abou play in Ligue 1 and hope that one day I would be able to score just one goal, so being in a position to score my 100th is a source of pride and I can't wait to do it."
To reach a century of Ligue 1 goals he will have to improve on the goalscoring record he had with Kuban, scoring just 3 times in 9 starts in Russia’s domestic league and in Europe. His goalscoring touch in France however is lethal to say the least, in 184 games the pacy forward has scored 94 goals for Auxerre and Marseille. He will have to continue that phenomenal goal tally if he has any chance of challenging the likes of Olivier Giroud, Karim Benzema and Loic Remy for a plane ticket to Brazil.