How did Moussa Sissoko get to the Champions League final?

Well, how does anyone?

By being one of the most influential midfielders in this year’s competition. By intervening at the decisive moments and bending them his way. By getting the better of his opponents; Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, Ajax and the rest.

No player has been more reliable or more consistent this year, or more important to Spurs’ miracle run than Sissoko. And no-one has encapsulated its thrilling feeling – the spirit, the hunger, the sheer giddy unlikeliness of it all – than the man they spent at least two years wondering if they still had the receipt for.

This is the most surprising comeback story of the season. No player in recent years has transformed himself quite like Sissoko, from sub to star, from unsellable to undroppable, from passenger to driving force.

Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Show all 29 1 /29 Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur How did Tottenham’s players perform this season? Ahead of their final match of the 2018/19 campaign, the Champions League final against Liverpool in Madrid, we give each member of the Spurs squad a rating out of 10. Getty Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Mauricio Pochettino − 9 No new signings. A delay to the new stadium. And the worst injury crisis he has ever faced in his managerial career. And yet Pochettino took it all in his stride, securing a place in the top four and leading Spurs to their first ever Champions League final. No wonder there were so many rumours that both Real Madrid and Manchester United wanted to recruit him earlier in the season. Getty Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Hugo Lloris − 7 There has been more than the odd high-profile mistake and his failure to deal with Mohamed Salah’s cross at Anfield handed Liverpool all three points in an absorbing Premier League fixture. But he remains an outstanding shotstopper and his three consecutive penalty saves proved crucial to Tottenham’s attempts to finish in the top four. Icon Sport via Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Michel Vorm − 5 The 35-year-old has appeared just four times this season and has now been surpassed by Paulo Gazzaniga in the goalkeeping pecking order. Action Images via Reuters Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Paulo Gazzaniga − 6 Has impressed when called upon this season, asserting himself as Tottenham’s number two goalkeeper while also winning his first Argentina call-up. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Kieran Trippier − 4 Began this campaign on a high having enjoyed a superb World Cup with England, so much so that he was being talked about as one of the best right-backs in football. That all seems a long time ago now. It has been a difficult season for the 28-year-old with his defensive vulnerabilities being repeatedly exposed. Has been linked with a move away from north London this summer. Getty Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Danny Rose − 6 Once one of Tottenham’s most important players, Rose’s contribution has declined in recent years, with Pochettino coming to prefer Ben Davies at left-back. But this season Rose has enjoyed something of a comeback, reclaiming his place in Pochettino’s preferred starting XI and appearing to repair the combustible relationship he had with his manager. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Toby Alderweireld − 7 Has made close to 50 appearances in all competitions for Tottenham this season. Utterly invaluable to the club this season, although he is still yet to agree a contract extension and looks destined to leave this summer. Spurs will be hard-pressed to sign a replacement of similar quality. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Jan Vertonghen − 8 A genuine club legend. As dependable as ever at the back, but his season will forever be remembered for his stunning performance against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley. Filling in at left-back, Vertonghen kept Jadon Sancho quiet all night, before scoring a wonderful goal to put Spurs in complete control of the Champions League Round of 16 tie. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Davinson Sanchez − 7 The Colombia international is still very raw and can struggle when isolated by opposition attackers, such as when Spurs were run ragged by Ajax in the first-leg of their Champions League semi-final. But he is still 22. He has such a big future and will be even more important to the club if Alderweireld does indeed leave this summer. Action Images via Reuters Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Kyle Walker-Peters − 6 The 22-year-old is highly rated at Spurs but he would have hoped for a better campaign, particularly given the struggles of both Trippier and Aurier. Walker-Peters will have been frustrated to have made just 10 appearances: should Spurs sign another full-back this summer he would do well to consider his future at the club. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Juan Foyth − 6 Has looked sublime in fits and bursts and is adored by Pochettino. Foyth was also called up to the Argentina national time for the first time this season. But the 21-year-old endured some testing times: conceding two penalties on his Premier League debut and receiving a red card in the shambolic loss to Bournemouth. REUTERS Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Serge Aurier − 5 So much hype, such little end product. A combination of injury woes and personal problems have seen the Ivory Coast international restricted to just eight league appearances this season. It is obvious Pochettino still does not completely trust him after a string of erratic performances following his move from Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. AFP/Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Ben Davies − 6 Has lost his place in Tottenham’s first-team to Rose in recent weeks. Still an important player, but after an inconsistent season he may fear the rumoured arrival of Ryan Sessegnon from Fulham. AFP/Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Harry Winks − 7 Has struggled with injuries throughout the campaign, and is currently making his comeback from groin surgery. But what a player. Took on far more responsibility this term – in particular scoring a winning goal against Fulham in January – and was so evidently missed when kept out of the team due to injury. Formed a fine midfield partnership with Moussa Sissoko. EPA Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Erik Lamela − 5 Started the season reasonably well, scoring a consolation against Liverpool and then getting on the scoresheet against Brighton in the next game, only for injuries to keep him out through a significant portion of the second half of the season. Increasingly doubtful that he will ever remain fit enough to truly consolidate a place in this team. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Victor Wanyama − 6 Has unexpectedly re-emerged as a crucial player for Spurs over the past few weeks. The extent of the knee injuries he has suffered over the past two seasons mean he is unlikely to ever again reach the level that he hit in the 2016/17 campaign, but despite some shaky moments, he played an important role in the European victories over both Manchester City and Ajax. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Georges-Kevin N'Koudou − 4 Nkou-who? Made just one Premier League appearance, crossing the ball for Winks to score against Fulham, before disappearing on loan to Monaco. Has absolutely no future at Spurs. REUTERS Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Eric Dier − 5 A very disappointing season for an established first-team player. Was kept out for a long period due to appendicitis and it is difficult to see where he fits into Pochettino’s preferred starting XI when everybody is fit. And there is still some confusion over whether he is best deployed as a midfielder or defender. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Moussa Sissoko − 8 Who on earth would have expected Sissoko to emerge as Tottenham’s most important player this season? Has completely turned his Spurs career around. And while his finishing may remain woeful, Spurs simply would not have reached the Champions League final without him. (Credit too long, see caption) Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Dele − 7 A difficult season for Dele, who like many of his team-mates has struggled with injuries this season. He has also faded in recent weeks, perhaps as a consequence of playing so much football in the summer. But he remains one of the club’s most important players, particularly when playing alongside a fully fit Kane. EPA Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Christian Eriksen − 7 Rumours of a summer transfer to La Liga along with a series of sub-par performances saw his stock fall among some Tottenham supporters. But he is still the heartbeat of this team and contributed so many important goals and assists, from his winner against Inter Milan at Wembley to his pass to Son Heung-min to break the deadlock in the club’s inaugural match at their new stadium. REUTERS Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Lucas Moura − 8 A breakthrough season for the Brazilian. Scored a brace against Manchester United, a hat-trick against Huddersfield, and then repeated that trick against Ajax in one of the most incredible Champions League performances in history. A bit-part player at the beginning of the season, Lucas is now a regular starter and cult hero. PA Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Oliver Skipp − 6 The 18-year-old has made 10 appearances in all competitions in his debut season, performing admirably when called upon and providing two assists in the 7-0 FA Cup win over Tranmere. One for the future, perhaps alongside fellow academy product Winks. AFP/Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Mousa Dembele − 5 An ankle ligament injury put paid to his Tottenham career, before an £11m move to Guangzhou R&F in the winter transfer market. Action Images via Reuters Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Son Heung-min − 8 Tottenham’s player of the season. Truly stepped up to the plate after Kane’s untimely injury, scoring 20 goals in all competitions, including that priceless winner against Manchester City in north London. That he achieved so much and elevated his game to the next level in a season that saw him play in two major international tournaments with South Korea is nothing short of remarkable. (Credit too long, see caption) Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Vincent Janssen − 5 Perhaps a 5/10 is generous, but it was only in January that Pochettino said Janssen was “not in my plans” and would not feature for the club again. Yet the club’s injury crisis presented him with a chance that he took, with the Dutchman making three appearances before the end of the campaign. Almost certain to leave this summer. Getty Images Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Fernando Llorente − 6 What a rollercoaster season. Struggled as a stand-in for the injured Kane, scoring just one goal in 20 Premier League appearances, but delivered when it mattered in the Champions League, bundling the ball over the line at the Etihad against Manchester City. Another that is likely to leave this summer, but he will be remembered fondly in north London. REUTERS Season rankings: Tottenham Hotspur Harry Kane − 7 Still managed to score 17 Premier League goals despite missing a third of the season through injury. Tottenham’s talisman – and yet he will look back on this campaign with regret after damaging his ankle ligaments once again. Has a chance of returning for the Champions League final, but should Pochettino start him? Getty Images

Because until really very recently, Sissoko had felt like a by-word for Spurs’ limitations. For their struggles in the transfer market, as a £30m record signing that no-one else wanted. For their lack of depth, as a downgrade from Mousa Dembele and Christian Eriksen. For the fundamental difference between Spurs and the richest sides. They get to pick the best players they can find, Spurs just have to make do. But Sissoko will be there in Madrid on Saturday, carrying his team’s hopes on his broad shoulders.

So, how did Moussa Sissoko finally get so good?

**

As Tottenham celebrated their comic-book win in Amsterdam three weeks ago, a memory was triggered inside Sissoko. This was his “best feeling” in football, but all the hysteria and disbelief in the Johan Cruyff Arena reminded Sissoko of the last time that he felt on top of the world.

“When you win that game, you know you are in the final of the Champions League, it is something amazing for a player,” Sissoko says in our interview at Spurs’ training ground last week. “But I can say, maybe this similar emotion in Euro 2016 with France. We beat Germany [in the semi-final] and they were in that time the best team in the world. We beat them, we go through to the final, it was a similar emotion.”

That was 7 July 2016, as two Antoine Griezmann goals gave France a 2-0 win over Germany in Marseille. Sissoko had been a key man in Didier Deschamps’ team, giving them energy down the right, showing more consistent application than he had managed in his three and a half seasons at Newcastle United. It felt as if Sissoko might finally fulfill the promise he showed at Toulouse. Three days later Sissoko was France’s best player in the final but France could not score and they had their hearts broken in extra time by Portugal’s Eder. “When you play a final, you don’t need to play [well],” he looks back now. “You need to win.”

And after that summer, Sissoko’s career did not go as well as he hoped. Yes, he got a dream move to Tottenham at the end of the window, Daniel Levy thinking he was a £30m punt worth taking. But arriving late, without a pre-season, meant that Sissoko was always playing catch up. This was Pochettino’s third season and by now he had his team working with the smooth unity of an orchestra. Throwing Sissoko in was like trying to fit in a drummer from a metal band.

Sissoko’s first meaningful contribution was to elbow Harry Arter in the face and get banned for three games. After that suspension Pochettino decided for two league games in November 2016 to not even pick Sissoko in his 18-man squad. In Brave New World, Pochettino put it down to badly-received comments about playing at Wembley, “combined with mistakes in his game, a lack of concentration and struggling to adapt to demands at Tottenham.” Pochettino even hammered Sissoko in public, saying he needed to work harder just to deserve to make the bench.

Moussa Sissoko celebrates in Amsterdam (AFP/Getty)

Tottenham finished 2016-17 with 26 wins and 86 points, their best league performance since Bill Nicholson, and a number they have not come close to since. Sissoko only made eight league starts, most of them on the wing. He was no more important to their success than Kevin Wimmer or Michel Vorm.

After spending years as the best player on his team, this was hard to take. So did he lose confidence? “No... but I wouldn’t say my confidence was high. At Newcastle and Toulouse I was playing every game. But I came to a new team, I was not playing, most of the time on the bench and coming on for 10 or 15 minutes. It was difficult. I had to stay strong in my head, even if it’s hard. My confidence wasn’t high but it wasn’t [all the way] down.”

Last season was not much better. Sissoko only started 15 league games. And after starting the first five World Cup qualifiers, he then lost his place in the France team, eventually not even making Didier Deschamps’ squad for Russia. Watching the team he used to be such an important part of lift the cup without him was hard to take. They could all atone for the agony of Paris. He could not.

“Of course I was disappointed. Before that I was part of all the selections [squads]. To not be involved in the World Cup, this is something very big for a player. Of course you would be disappointed.”

Later that summer Sissoko was put up for sale by Spurs, but they could not find a buyer.

**

Go back through the decisive moments of this Champions League campaign, the long string of unlikely events that has ended up with Tottenham in Madrid, and Sissoko was always there.

In Barcelona he was Spurs’ best player, driving them on to their second half comeback.

In Dortmund he killed off the tie, playing that crisp cutting pass through to Harry Kane for the game-over away goal.

Against City he set the first leg tempo, forcing them back, helping Spurs to that crucial 1-0 win.

And against Ajax his early introduction turned the flow of the first leg, as Spurs finally found a way to disrupt the game. Hakim Ziyech bemoaned the midfield influence of the “giant” Sissoko afterwards.

Or you can look into the Premier League season, when Sissoko started 27 games, more than he did in his first two campaigns put together. Like how he shut down Chelsea in the thrilling 3-1 win at Wembley. Or his artful assist for Erik Lamela at the London Stadium in October.

But ultimately for Sissoko it is not just about moments or peaks. There is plenty of false modesty in football but Sissoko is genuine when he declines to choose a best performance this season. He answers with a nervous laugh and a request to ask Pochettino instead.

“This answer, you should maybe ask the manager, maybe he will answer to you,” he says. “When I play a game, even if it is Chelsea or Ajax, or Burnley or Watford, I try to give my best and I try to be better and better. Each game of course is totally different. I don’t say to myself I have to be better in this game than a better one. I try to be consistent, and even improve. That’s why I can not tell you which is my best game this season.”

That consistency and reliability is what Sissoko was always accused of being incapable of when he was at Newcastle. But he has answered that now. One former senior Spurs official said that he was “speechless” at how good Sissoko was this season. Heung Min Son won the players’ and fans’ awards for this season but on Tuesday afternoon at the training ground Sissoko was presented with the Spurs legends’ awards by Graham Roberts. “When he goes on those runs, people just back off him,” Roberts said. “Like they’re frightened of him.”

That is exactly what Spurs had been missing. As Dembele and Wanyama got old, they lacked any force in the middle of the pitch. But Sissoko has given them some of their old dynamism back, breaking forward, running beyond the ball, or taking a hammer to the opposition’s attacks.

Moussa Sissoko has become a key player for Spurs this year (Getty)

“I’m a player who likes to do box-to-box,” Sissoko explains. “I think I can help the team in both transitions: when we defend, and they [the opposition] are going on the counter-attack because I am strong and I am fast, I can recover the ball, I can help our full-backs when they are higher. At the same time when we go on counter-attack to score, I can make some runs behind the defence.”

Sissoko’s idol is a man who did great things on the other side of north London. “Tottenham fans won’t be happy, but my hero was Patrick Vieira,” he says. “He was playing for Arsenal but he was my idol. We have a similar style: he liked to do box-to-box, I’m tall like him, he was strong, ran a lot. So I think we’re similar. Maybe he was better than me, but I try to be close to him.”

Sissoko says that he “feels more power in the changing room” now, because he has started to justify his place in the team. “When you perform, your teammates demand more from you, I like that,” he says. “That why I try to be a leader on the pitch, fighting for every ball, running, doing a lot of things.”

**

So what happened? What was the science behind this football alchemy? What did Sissoko have to give up, or take up, to turn from a bad player into a good one?

But speak to Sissoko about how this has happened and there is no simple turning point or neat explanation. “No, honestly, I think it was step-by-step,” he says. When asked for anything different he has done to transform himself, Sissoko gives the standard answers of any professional footballer. He mentions “extra things to improve”, says they are “private” and does not want to expand beyond the basics: “How you eat, rest, sleep and recover, and more focus on training.”

Sometimes there is no easy external solution. This time the switch and the strength was in Sissoko’s head. His mentality was how he ignored the criticism, coped with the rejection, survived that upsetting summer without ever feeling sorry for himself or ever giving up. Because it would have been easy to stop trying last year, to give up on Spurs, give up on France, to accept that at 29 years old he was probably never going to fulfill his natural talents. Because after all, World Cups aren’t for everyone, the Champions Leagues isn’t for everyone, and if he couldn’t quite cut it at the top then he could always go back to France.

But Sissoko did not see it like that last summer. “I said to myself: I need to stay focused on myself and keep working. Because if you give up, the things will go down and down. I need to stay calm and keep working. And try to change everything.”

Sissoko has become integral to Mauricio Pochettino's plans (Reuters)

It shows that there is such a thing as trying too hard. Sissoko’s great triumph has been to avoid that. And to allow his confidence to grow with every game. “I try to be relaxed in my head. Try to be better at the training. And if I had the opportunity to play, try to play well. And then that’s what I’ve done. And after, when I have played well, to try to do the same in the next game. And to keep going. Like I said, step by step.”

This is why there is no click moment, no magic factor external to Sissoko. He played more, he believed more, he played better, a virtuous circle that is still turning even now. “It’s the confidence,” he says. “I had the opportunity to play in the beginning of the season and I did well, so I kept playing. When you play a few games in a row, you have more confidence in yourself, you try to do more things. That’s why I feel more confident with the team right now.”