Recently Mexican teams have made some surprising moves like the Keisuke Honda to Pachuca deal or the Ravel Morrison transfer to Atlas. Teams in Mexico are looking towards other places to sign potential stars and this Saturday second-tier side Atletico San Luis made a very surprising move.
The Ascenso MX team brought in French-born midfielder Mohamed Sissoko, who last played in Indonesia for Mitra Kukar. The 32-year-old has been a journeyman since 2015 playing in China, India, Indonesia the Italian second division and now the Mexican second division. Sissoko has a very respectable background as he has played for some of the best teams in the world in his career that spans about 15 years.
The Malian international started his career in his native France playing for Auxerre but then made a move from the Burgundy side to La Liga side Valencia. In Spain, he had a successful stint from 2003-2005, where he was coached by Rafa Benitez and Claudio Ranieri, who liked him enough to bring him ob later in future projects. Benitez took Sissoko to Liverpool in 2005, he would play with The Reds until 2008 before joining up with Ranieri at Juventus in 2008. Sissoko played with the team from Turin until 2011, these stints with Liverpool and Juventus would be the most successful in his career.
The French-born midfielder did suffer from severe injury issues with Juventus that would never make him the same player again. Sissoko’s last stable home was in Paris with PSG from 2011-2013, where he made 28 total appearances with two goals. From there the Malian player went to Spanish side Levante before making his tour around Asia, playing in China, India and Indonesia as mentioned before.
Atletico San Luis is owned by Atletico Madrid and these types of signings may be a trend going forward with the team. San Luis finished 11th in the Apertura 2017 with 21 points, missing out on the playoffs and may look to reinforce the team with more signings. The move is very peculiar on both ends but it is very promising and exciting for Mexican teams to go for these intriguing players instead of the typical South American players that are scattered throughout the country. Sissoko has a massive physical presence at 6-foot-3 and does have impressive defensive capabilities it will be interesting to see how he can do in a fairly competitive Ascenso MX league
