Djibril Cisse signs for Swiss third tier club

The 35-year-old Cisse, who played for France at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups and won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, has not played professionally since announcing his retirement in 2015 while at French Ligue 1 club Bastia.

“I ended my career, but the desire to play football was still there,” said Cisse, adding that he had totally recovered from a hip operation two years ago.

“When I came here I met the president, and at the start my arrival was almost a joke, I said why not? They have a short-to-medium term plan which is very attractive.”

Di Pietrantonio said the signing was made in a “very friendly, very human way. The winner is the man, the desire he has”.

Having spent his formative years at Auxerre, for whom he was twice best scorer in Ligue 1, Cisse signed for Liverpool in 2004 before moving to Marseille.

He then also played for Panathinaikos in Greece, Lazio in Italy, Queens Park Rangers and Sunderland, and Kuban Krasnodar in Russia before initially bringing his career to an end after two years at Bastia.

Cisse’s first match for Yverdon will be a pre-season clash with Fribourg on July 15.

Yverdon Sport, which spent several seasons in the Swiss first division, aim to rebound rapidly into the second division. They are coached by Frenchman Anthony Braizat, who played for Toulouse before going on to play for and then coach Servette FC in the Swiss league.