Toon
star's harrowing past as ambulance driver
AT THE RESCUE ... Papiss Cisse is
used to being a hero
HE
used to help save lives as an ambulance driver in his native Senegal.
But now Newcastle need Papiss Cisse
to help save their season.
The striker runs out at the Estadio
da Luz tomorrow night with Toon’s entire campaign in the balance.
Victory against Benfica in their
Europa League quarter-final will leave Alan Pardew’s boys dreaming of a first
trophy — 2006 Intertoto Cup success aside — since lifting the Fairs Cup in
1969.
But it could also provide a
much-needed lift to their hopes of staving off relegation from the Premier
League.
Newcastle are just three points
clear of the drop zone after Saturday’s 4-0 thumping at the hands of champions
Manchester City.
And the sirens are sounding on
Tyneside.
But Cisse is no stranger to that
because he worked for the emergency services at the age of 15.
He now has his own charity and has
raised enough cash to buy a new ambulance, X-ray machine and medical equipment
for a hospital back home.
So before his flight to Lisbon,
SunSport surprised Cisse with a familiar vehicle — courtesy of the North East
Ambulance Service Foundation Trust.
And the £10million hitman admits
memories of his old job came flooding back as he got behind the steering wheel.
He recalled: “Where I grew up in
Sedhiou the hospital didn’t really have anything.
“So I would take people from my home
town to another town, Dakar, where there was a better hospital.
“You would have to take people for
three or four hours in the ambulance.
“And I did unfortunately witness a
lot of deaths while on the road because they couldn’t last the entire journey.
“There were a lot of cases of women
who had miscarriages or women who would unfortunately die on the way to
hospital.
“That is something which hurts a lot
when I think back to it.
“If I have a personal objective in
life it is really to help the hospital in the town where I was from.
“I want them to have more resources
so they can deal with people on site.”
Cisse, 27, runs the Friends of Sedhiou
from his home in the North East where he has more than settled — even dating
Miss Newcastle 2012, Rachelle Graham.
It has actually now been nearly 15
months since he arrived from Freiburg and went on to plunder 13 goals in just
14 games to help Toon to a stunning fifth-place finish.
And although he has found the going
tougher this term, his 20-yard wonder volley against Southampton and successive
late winners against Stoke City and Anzhi Makhachkala reminded fans of his
potential to terrorise defences.
Cisse is loving life in the North
East. He admitted: “I feel at home in Newcastle. I’ve been welcomed ever since
I came here.
“The supporters are special and
extraordinary people.
“Sometimes you will meet them on the
street and it’s nice to share a few words with them — it doesn’t cost me
anything to do that and it makes them extremely happy.
“My first six months here were
extraordinary. Everything I touched turned to gold.
“Obviously I was hoping it was going
to be the same as the first six months this season.
“But when I first arrived defences
didn’t know what to expect — I was something a little bit new.
“Now defences have worked me out a
bit and they’ve kept me quieter but I’ve been working hard to get back to my
form of last season.”
Cisse is of course now the No 1
hitman on Tyneside since Demba Ba made the £7m move to Chelsea in January.
The fact that the two Senegal front
men never really hit it off together on the pitch at St James’ Park was a
frustration for Magpies fans.
Both bagged goals on Cisse’s debut
against Aston Villa in February 2012.
But that would be Ba’s last goal of
the campaign — despite an incredible scoring run earlier in that season when he
netted 15 goals in as many league games not long after his move on a free from
West Ham.
The duo appeared on the same Toon
scoresheet only once more before Ba, 27, sealed his switch to Stamford Bridge.
Last month they were reunited for
Senegal’s 1-1 World Cup qualifier draw with Angola. Cisse in fact came on for
Ba — who on Monday scored a screamer for his new club to knock Manchester
United out of the FA Cup.
And he insists it was great catching
up with his old Toon pal — denying there was ever a rift.
Cisse — whose middle name is Demba —
said: “There is more expectation on my shoulders now Ba has left because the
team expect only me to score.
“We were team-mates and we do get on
well on and off the pitch.
“He’s perhaps not someone that I go
out and eat with every night but we are good friends. When we met in Senegal he
asked me how things are going at Newcastle and I told him we are getting better
as a team.
“Likewise, I asked him how things
are going at Chelsea.
“He said things are going well and
he is trying to make an effort to do even better.”
The good news for Toon supporters is
that unlike his fellow countryman, Cisse has no intention of quitting the club
any time soon.
And with Newcastle riding high in
Europe, he refuses to look beyond St James’ Park when asked about his future
plans.
Cisse added: “I’ve signed a contract
for 4½ years and I am going to be playing out my contract — that’s what I want
to be here for. I’m really happy to be playing in Europe.
“In terms of winning trophies, we
are in the Europa League and we have every chance of winning that.
“We are not saying we are going to but
we are going to go out there and go as far as we possibly can in it.
“It’s not going to be easy. We are
expecting a tough match against Benfica who are a very good team.
“But we are not going to go there
and make it easy for them.
“We are going cause them as many
problems as we can and try and get the win.”
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