It started in Conakry, Guinea and ended on the shoulders of his teammates in Bergamo, Italia. The life path of Moustapha Cisse is really a short one so far, but only due to his age (18 years). His life was not as any kid from Western Europe would imagine it, as he was forced to quit school and seek asylum as a 16 year old boy. He arrived in Italy and now he is a player of one of the most stabile clubs in Serie A – Atalanta. What’s even better, he just scored on his debut in the game against Bologna, providing all 3 points to his new team. Dream start indeed. Moustapha Cissé 18, made his debut for Atalanta yesterday and scored the winning goal ⚽.Cissé moved to Italy as a refugee and orphan. He signed for Atalanta youth a month ago from 8th division side Rinascita Refugees, a team made of refugees & asylum seekers in Lecce. pic.twitter.com/OkjKUoiZsQ— Mozzart Bet Kenya (@mozzartbetkenya) March 21, 2022 And it was only a month ago when Cisse played in the eight Italian league with his club ASD Rinascita Refugees. “Due to a series of family events, including the death of his father, Moustapha dropped out of school as a teenager and left his Guinea, from Conakry, heading for Europe, in search of a better life. At the time he was a 16-year-old boy: disoriented, frightened. In 2019 we took charge of him, as a cooperative Rinascita, and hosted him in our community of Carmiano. We remember him as an educated and respectful of the rules: his dream was to become a footballer. In the morning he followed the literacy courses to learn Italian and training courses to qualify professionally. In the afternoon he trained, because we have a football team“ explained Antonio Palma, president of the ‘Asd Rinascita Refugees and the Rinascita social cooperative’ to Gazeta.
ASD Rinascita Refugees is a club consisting entirely of foreign players and coaches seeking asylum. The club plays in the Seconda Categoria — the eighth tier of Italian football that consists of nearly 3,000 clubs spread across 296 divisions. For legislative reasons, concerning the card of non-EU minors, the club was unable to register Cisse. Therefore he has never played with Rinascita Refugees in official league matches, but the coach has included him in the team anyway, making him train and engaging him in friendlies. In one of those matches he was spotted and signed for Atalanta. Soon the club from Bergamo faced a striker crisis, due to injuries for both strikers: Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata. Coach Gasperini gave chance to Cisse and he scored the winner on his debut, and was greeted by his teammates, who took him off the field on their shoulders. Osimhen can turn a good team into a Scudetto-winning team! Nigerian strikes a double in Napoli comebackCisse now shares the dressing room with Alassane Sidibe, a 19-year-old from Ivory Coast, who arrived on a boat in Lampedusa, grew up (including football) in Abruzzo and is now part of Gasperini’s first team. And hopefully, more will follow. „Today our team has at least 28 athletes, mostly from West Africa: they are young people with an average age of 23 or 24, awaiting a judgment from the territorial commission for the recognition of political asylum, subsidiary protection or humanitarian. They train between Carmiano and Copertino, speaking strictly in Italian: a way to foster understanding and communication with opponents and the referee, anti-discrimination and respect for the rule“ explained Vincenzo Nobile, sporting director of Rinascita Refugees.