Newcastle sign Papiss Demba Cissé

• Senegal forward agrees five-and-a-half-year deal
• 26-year-old joins international team-mate Demba Ba

Papiss Demba Cissé scored for Senegal in their 1-0 win over Kenya on Sunday. 

Newcastle have signed the Senegal striker Papiss Demba Cissé from Freiburg on a five-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

The Premier League club confirmed the deal last night and are thought to have spent in the region of £10m on the26-year-old, who is an international team-mate of his new club strike partner, Demba Ba. Cissé has scored nine Bundesliga goals this season and also found the net for his country in a 1-0 victory over Kenya in a warm-up game for the Africa Cup of Nations, which gets under way in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon on Saturday.

"I would like to thank everybody for their welcome and for inviting me to sign for the club," he said. "It is an honour to play for such a big club and I am looking forward to it. I want to pay back the confidence the club have shown in me and give the supporters something to be proud of."

The forward will wear the No9 shirt and he added: "I am aware of the huge importance of the No9 shirt and, when I spoke with the manager, he made it very clear how important this shirt is. I will treat it with respect and I hope to do my very best in this shirt."

The Newcastle manager, Alan Pardew, said: "Ever since Andy Carroll left, Papiss was my first choice in the specific role he has at the end of the play. He is a finisher with an already established CV in the Bundesliga, where we have monitored him for the best part of two years.

"Unfortunately he was out of reach, financially, for us in the summer, but it recently became apparent that Derek Llambias [managing director] and Lee Charnley [club secretary] could do the deal in this window.

"I spoke to Demba about Papiss, and he cannot wait to join up with his team-mate in Newcastle.

"In the short term, of course, he is at the Africa Cup of Nations but the competition he will bring to our squad when he joins up with us should inspire the players and reassure them of this club's ambition."

Cissé was rated at around £14m during the summer but it is understood the fee is significantly less than that, with Newcastle continuing to exploit the European market, a policy which has proved productive recently.

Llambias said: "We are very pleased to bring Papiss to the club.

"It is a signing which perfectly complements the type of side Alan is building, and we are sure he will prove to be an excellent acquisition going forward."