German club Freiburg deny Blackburn offer for Cisse

By Piers Edwards
BBC Sport

Cisse has been one of the most profilic scorers in Germany this season

German club SC Freiburg have denied that Blackburn Rovers have bid for Senegal striker Papiss Demba Cisse.

German magazine Kicker reported this week that Freiburg sporting director Dirk Dufner said the Premier League side had made an offer for the player.

"This was a misunderstanding by Kicker," Rudi Raschke, Freiburg's Head of Communications, told BBC Sport.

"We won't say that Blackburn are not interested but we have yet to receive a concrete offer on paper."

He added: "We know that they have been watching him during matches this season - but so have many Premier League sides this season."

Cisse, 25, has been interesting Europe's top clubs after scoring 22 Bundesliga goals this season, trailing top scorer Mario Gomez of Bayern Munich by two.

In a previous interview, the Senegalese told the BBC he would be interested in joining a club playing Champions League football.

Freiburg, who paid 1.6m euros to sign Cisse from Metz two years ago, are believed to be holding out for an offer of around 15m euros (£12.5m) for a player under contract until 2014.

Cisse has provided more than half of Freiburg's 41 league goals this season, including both in Saturday's 2-0 win at Hamburg, propelling the club to seventh in the Bundesliga.