Stephane Sessegnon played for both Sunderland and West Brom during his time in England.
Sessegnon, now aged 37, began his footballing career with Benin side Requins de l’Atlantique in 2003. After impressing there as a youngster he eventually earned a move to France with Parisian side Creteil and after two more impressive seasons there, he was bought by Le Mans.
He moved up from Ligue 2 with Creteil into Ligue 1 with Le Mans and his journey kick-started here – another couple of impressive seasons in which he scored six goals in 61 appearances saw him snapped up by PSG. The French giants fended off interest from both Arsenal and Newcastle United to secure the €8million signing of Sessegnon who was by this point a regular with the Benin national side.
Sessegnon would go on to make over 100 appearances for PSG, scoring 11 goals before falling down the pecking order in his third season at the club and subsequently finding himself on his way to England.
Sunderland paid £6million for Sessegnon in January 2011. After a slow start to life in England, the attacker quickly settled into his rhythm going on to score three Premier League goals in his first half-season at the club, before seven in the following 2011/12 season featuring in all but two of the Black Cats’ Premier League fixtures that season before earning himself an extended deal, after being named the club’s Player of the Season.
Another fruitful season followed – Sessegnon scored the same amount of Premier League goals and did so in a game less as well. But he’d be snapped up by West Brom for a club record fee at the time of £5.5million coming soon after the start of the 2013/14 campaign.
Over the course of three seasons he managed 92 appearances in all competitions for the Baggies, scoring eight goals (he featured 97 times for Sunderland and scored 18).
In his final season with West Brom and indeed in England, the 2015/16 season, Sessegnon would find himself on the peripheries of the Baggies line up thanks to then manager Tony Pulis who eventually reinstated him to the side, but Sessegnon leave for Montpellier in the summer of 2016.
After two more seasons back in France he’d go on to sign for Turkish side Gençlerbirliği midway through the 2017/18 campaign where over the next three seasons he managed 68 appearances in all competitions and eight goals.
Since 2020 though, Sessegnon has been a free agent. He retired from international duty in 2019 with 83 caps and 24 goals to his name and was this summer linked with Ligue 2 side Dijon. But nothing would come of it and Sessegnon at age 37 remains a free agent.
He was a player who won the hearts of fans at every club he played for – his energy and genuine attacking ability made for some spectacular viewing at times and to this day fans of both Sunderland and West Brom will surely have plenty of memories of the Benin ace. After over a year out of the game though, it looks as though he may well have unofficially called time on his career.
