Aliou Cisse
Senegal manager Aliou Cisse achieved legend status earlier this year by leading Senegal to their first Africa Cup of Nations title, and the manager now has his sights set on making a splash at World Cup 2022.
The former midfielder, who featured for the likes of PSG, Birmingham City and Portsmouth during his playing days, has been in charge of the Lions of Teranga since 2015.
His appointment marked a promotion after a spell working with Senegal’s Under-23 side and as an assistant for the senior national team.
Seven years later, Cisse continues to prove that the head honchos were right to trust him.
Cisse led his country to the 2018 World Cup, where they were hugely unlucky to become the first team ever to be knocked out by fair play tiebreaker rules.
Senegal ended the group stage level with Japan on points, goal difference, goals scored and head-to-head, but they picked up two more yellow cards than the Blue Samurai and were therefore eliminated.
A year later, Cisse took Senegal to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 2002, but they were beaten 1-0 by Algeria. The boss had done enough to earn a contract extension, though, and in February this year he went one step better.
Sadio Mane scored the winning penalty in a shoot-out victory over Egypt in the AFCON final to clinch his country’s first-ever title.
In World Cup qualifying, history repeated itself as Mane again scored a decisive penalty against Egypt to send Cisse’s side through at the Pharaohs' expense after a 1-1 aggregate score over two legs.
Senegal manager Aliou Cisse has plenty of options to choose from his Senegal World Cup squad, too, with players such as Sadio Mane, Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Kouliably joined by Idrissa Gana Gueye and Abdou Diallo.
The African champions will face a tough task in Group A, though, where they are up against the Netherlands, Ecuador and hosts Qatar.