Papiss Cisse. | image source: AFP
The football world was treated to a shocking story on Tuesday when an English newspaper broke news that Newcastle United and Senegal striker, Demba Papiss Cisse, sought the services of a voodoo priest to help him re-discover his lethal goal scoring touch.
Cisse's case is not an isolated incident as there have been other cases of players and teams confessing to using "black magic" to attain on pitch success.
1). Taribo West
The former Nigeria defender admitted in an interview last month that he used to believe in "juju" during his playing days. West claimed that he used to visit Senegalese voodoo priests who would put cuts on his body as they performed some rituals which were supposed to make him a "strong" player.
West however saw the light when he invited a God-fearing woman known as Patience Ikemefuna to his home in Europe. While staying with West, Patience discovered some charms that he had placed in various places in the house and she immediately prayed for him and convinced him to give his life to Christ. Following the incident, West destroyed the charms and held regular prayers with Patience to reinforce his belief in God.
West is now a pastor and he is grateful to Patience for helping turn around his life. He refers to Patience as his 'sister'.
2). Zaire 1974 World Cup Squad
Zaire, now DR Congo, became the first sub-Saharan nation to feature at the FIFA World Cup when they qualified for the 1974 tournament which was held in West Germany.
The Zaireans are said to have traveled to Europe with some witch-doctors who were supposed to help them register good results but it was not to be as they lost 9-0, 3-0 and 2-0 to Yugoslavia, Brazil and Scotland respectively.
3). Benin AFCON 2004 Squad
Voodoo is so popular in Benin that there is even a market where people can purchase paraphernalia for use in rituals.
Their national team made it to its first AFCON in 2004 and they are said to have carried along with them some voodoo priests to Tunisia to help in their preparation for matches.
The team however did not make it to the quarterfinals and finished last in their group losing 2-0, 4-0 and 2-1 to South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria respectively.
According to Ghost Mulee, who was coaching Harambee Stars at the tournament, the Benin people blamed the voodoo men for their team's poor performance saying that they failed in their job.
Watch the video below of Ghost narrating that incident.
4). Mwenge FC 1975
In 1975, Kenya Football Federation chairman Kenneth Matiba was concerned that some Kenyan football teams were using witchcraft to boost their performance.
With English football club Norwich City touring the country in that year, Matiba decided to use the occasion to prove that witchcraft does not work and hence dissuade teams from believing in and practicing it.
Norwich City was to play four Kenyan teams - Gor Mahia, Champion, AFC Leopards and Mwenge FC - and Matiba had declared that if any of the teams beat Norwich City using witchcraft, the federation would pay the team's witch-doctor's fees for two years.
The Kenyan teams first had to declare publicly that they will use witchcraft to defeat their opponents before match day.
However it was only Mwenge FC who were brave enough to do so and they ended up losing 3-1 to the Englishmen. In their defense they claimed that their "magic" worked because they managed to lose by a small margin against Norwich as compared to Gor Mahia (4-1), AFC Leopards (6-1) and Champion (8-0).
5). Thomas Nkono
In 2002 during the African Cup of Nations tournament in Mali, former Cameroon goalkeeper, Thomas Nkono, was arrested by police after he was spotted burying bones on the football pitch ahead of Cameroon's semi-final match against the host nation.
Nkono can however brag that his "magic" worked as the Indomitable Lions won the match 3-0 and qualified for the finals when they beat Senegal 4-2 on penalties to lift their fourth and last AFCON trophy to date.
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