Joe Sise moves to Denmark

Gambia-hopeful Joe Sise has decided to leave Sweden to ply his trade in Denmark for Danish Superligaen [top tier] side FC Nordsjælland, Gambia Sports Online can reveal.

The 22-year-old Gambian has reportedly signed a three-year-contract with the Farum based outfit.

Joe Sise, who started his career in Snöstorp Nyhem FF, a minor club in the town of Halmstad, he took the step up in to the senior team in 2004 at the age of 15. In spring 2008 he went on loan to IFK Värnamo as he finished his studies at the local football gymnasium [a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools].

During the summer transfer window Sise signed for local rivals Halmstads BK, making his debut against GIF Sundsvall on 24 October 2008, the game ending 0-0. Prior to signing for Halmstads BK, Sise had been on trial with AC Milan and Manisaspor.

Following the end of the 2011 season, Sise announced he would not sign a new contract with Halmstads BK and follow the club in its relegation to Superettan. Following the end of Joe Sise’s contract he was made subject to speculation of where he would play next, in mid-October, a person named Can Arikboga, claimed to be Sise’s agent and told German newspaper Bild that the player was soon signing for Hansa Rostock in 2. Fußball-Bundesliga [second tier], however 2 days after the rumor arose Sise told the local newspaper Hallandsposten that Can Arikboga was not his agent and that he had no idea of who Arikboga was, stating that he been a victim of an agent fraud.

Sise couldn’t hide his emotions after signing for the Danish club. He said in an interview, “I feel very happy right now because I know I will play in a team that plays football exactly the way I love to play and that suits me. Since 2009 I have played against FC Nordsjælland every year with Halmstad in test matches, and beyond that, I’ve seen them play several matches against other teams and it’s a great football team to look at every single time, I think.”

“I remember the first time I played against them, I felt actually a bit of inspiration that you could play that way in our latitudes. In the past six years I have thought about my future that I would be here, I’ve seen them live at the stadium twice and several times on TV and it was those experiences that made me decide that it was the team I wanted to play for,” Sise added.

“He is an exciting young striker to watch. He is a major physical player than what we already have, yet he moves, so there is no doubt that he will fit in our squad and also help us in the field, says FC Nordsjælland head coach Kasper Hjulmand said of the Gambian.

For Nordsjælland’s Sports Director, Jan Laursen, the club has since been following the young striker but interest from other clubs made their bid for the player to last longer than expected.

“You can safely say that this is an old love, which eventually was reciprocated. We’ve been after Joe Sise for over 1½ years where we’ve seen him play and talked to him several times but competition from clubs in other countries have been so severe that it never looked quite realistic,” Laursen said shortly after the player put pen to paper.

“But it is my impression that after Joe got to know us as people and football, then interest slowly been reciprocated, and it is a great joy when such a long and thorough process ends in a result,” he added.

About FC Nordsjælland

Football Club Nordsjælland (F.C. Nordsjælland, or FCN in short) is a professional Danish football team from the North Zealand town of Farum, Denmark. Founded as Farum Boldklub from the merger of the town’s two football clubs Farum IK and Stavnsholt BK in 1991, the club changed its name to F.C. Nordsjælland in 2003.

FCN plays in the Danish Superliga, achieving their highest league position in the 2002-03 season, taking 3rd place. Since then the Wild Tigers have made four appearances in Europe under both the old UEFA Cup format in 2003-04, 2008-09 and in the UEFA Europa League during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.

Their greatest spell of success has come within the last two years, lifting their very first trophy the Danish Cup in 2010 and successfully defending it the following year in 2011, consequently beating FC Midtjylland in both finals.

F.C. Nordsjælland plays its matches at Farum Park, which has a capacity of 10,100 of which 9,800 seating and 300 standing spectators. The club is known for focusing heavily on youth with a strong talent development. Their play style is often referred to as aggressive attack minded football, where they play a 4-2-3-1 system in which they flood the midfield with bodies and play with a single striker.