Demba Ba: Senegal Can’t Win 2019 Cup of Nations

Senegal striker Demba Ba has gotten under the skin of coach Aliou Cisse after claiming the Teranga Lions won’t win the 2019 Nations Cup.

Snubbed by Cisse for the World Cup, the erstwhile Chelsea hit-man believes Senegal won’t be winning next year’s continental showpiece owing to the gaffer’s selection choices.

Making reference to what he thinks forced veteran striker Moussa Sow to retire internationally in recent months, the 33-year-old said he wouldn’t follow the dreadlocked coach if he were to walk in Cisse’s shoes as the Lions’ manager.

“I’m not considering a call-up from Senegal and I do not have it at the back of my head,” he said.

“I do not understand the choices of Cisse. If I were a coach, I would never do like him and I would not follow him. There are things that seem odd to me in Aliou Cissé’s style of management. But it’s like that, we accept.”

“I do not think that Senegal can win something in 2019. And I hope I’m wrong,” he told the press in Dakar.

Ba was last summoned to the Teranga Lions set up in 2015 in the friendly 2-1 triumph over Ghana in a tie he was later replaced by Moussa Konate.