Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier thought he had completed a major coup when he signed a 21-year-old El Hadji Diouf from Lens in the summer of 2002.
The Senegal international, purchased for £10million, made the Frenchman’s swoop look all the more impressive in South Korea and Japan.
Houllier’s pains after seeing his nation’s shock early exit from the World Cup would have been soothed by the knowledge that he was welcoming a star of the Teranga Lions squad that shocked the globe.
Under the Frenchman, the Reds had begun to believe they could end their long wait for a top-flight title. His three full seasons in sole charge had seen the side finish fourth, third and second: The summit was all that remained.
In came Bruno Cheyrou, Salif Diao and his Senegal team-mate Diouf, the headline act of a trio that would see the Reds get over the top.
There was excitement and expectation of the new signings when Liverpool’s squad returned from their holidays to begin work for the 2002-03 campaign.
El Hadji Diouf joined Liverpool from Ligue 1 side Lens for £10million in the summer of 2002
Then Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier believed that the forward’s addition would see the Reds clinch the Premier League title
Diouf starred for a Senegal team that shocked the world at the 2022 World Cup in South Korea and Japan
‘I arrived for pre-season training anticipating my first view of the players who’d turn us into title winners,’ Anfield legend Jamie Carragher wrote in his autobiography. ‘I returned home the same evening in a state of depression.’
Cheyrou and Diao proved to be largely ineffective, while Diouf caused such issues that he is considered by Liverpool supporters to be one of the club’s worst signing in the Premier League era.
The forward got his Liverpool career off to the best possible start, scoring a brace on his home debut in a 3-0 win over Southampton. But those strikes would be Diouf’s last until March, by which time he had long lost his place in the starting XI.
In truth, the problem was not just his attitude and failure to connect with his team-mates, it was also what he produced on the pitch. Houllier had built a reputation as a savvy operator in the transfer market.
The previous windows had seen the likes of John Arne Riise, Milan Baros, Jerzy Dudek, Emile Heskey and Sami Hyypia arrive at the club – players that would be crucial in major trophies wins, including the Champions League after the Frenchman’s departure.
And in the summer of 2002 he had leveraged his extensive network in France to unearth a young Lens forward who had caught the eye by registering 10 goals and five assists in his final season in Ligue 1.
Ironically, Liverpool passed up the chance to sign former Arsenal and Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka, who had spent the second half of that season on loan at Merseyside, because of concerns over his attitude.
Instead they got a player of lesser ability with just as much baggage on and off field.
The Senegalese got his Liverpool off to the best star with a brace against Southampton on his home debut
‘We could have done better in terms of recruitment, obviously. But we lacked time to check and do the usual homework that we do before recruiting a player,’ Hollier told the Liverpool Echo in 2015.
‘It’s not something against the player. It’s probably more something I regret I couldn’t do because of health reasons.
‘I wish I had kept Nicolas Anelka, instead of recruiting Diouf, but his brothers didn’t help him. Diouf is an outstanding player. It’s not about his football qualities, he’s top class.
‘But his attitude sometimes, particularly his spitting habit, caused us problems.’
Diouf’s penchant for spitting cast a shadow over his time in the Premier League, with repeated offences and allegations.
The year he arrived from Lens he was accused of spitting at West Ham supporters in the away end at Anfield while warming up pre-match. Merseyside Police later found no evidence
But in March the following year, Diouf was found guilty of spitting at Celtic fans during a UEFA Cup quarter-final tie at Parkhead. Liverpool fined him two weeks’ wages and UEFA banned him for two matches.
Police also charged him with assault, to which he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, and was fined £5,000.
Diouf was found guilty of spitting at Celtic fans during a UEFA Cup quarter-final tie at Parkhead
Another notable example of his nasty habit came while on with Bolton when the forward was accused of spitting in the face of Portsmouth player Arjan de Zeeuw
While on loan at Bolton in 2004, Diouf was again investigated by police after spitting a mouthful of juice at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan. He received a £500 fine for that offence.
And later the same month, he was accused of spitting in the face of Portsmouth captain Arjan de Zeeuw during a Premier League game.
Bolton fined him two weeks’ wages and banned him for three games for what was becoming a shockingly common transgression.
Such was the concern over Diouf’s persistent spitting, Bolton manager Sam Allardyce considered sending him to a sports psychologist.
Ahead of his departure from Anfield, Diouf made sure to get on the wrong side of several of his team-mates, most notably captain Steven Gerrard.
In 2020, then Liverpool youngster Florent Sinama Pongolle revealed the pair almost came to blows at half-time during a pre-season friendly, with Diouf asking manager Houllier to tell Gerrard he’d ‘f*** his mum’ before adding: “I’d do him in straight away.”
‘Can you imagine the young ones seeing this and thinking that’s what professionals are like at that level?’ Pongolle added.
Diouf and Gerrard’s exchanges continued long after the Senegalese’s exit for Bolton in 2005.
Diouf and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard nearly came to blows at the interval of a pre-season match
In his 2007 autobiography, Gerrard wrote: ‘Diouf was just interested in himself. His attitude was all wrong. I felt he wasn’t really a***d about putting his body on the line to get Liverpool back at the top.’
Diouf responded five years later, saying: ‘Gerrard was jealous of me back then as I had the world at my feet. There’s no one more selfish… he doesn’t care about anyone else.
‘Gerrard would rather Liverpool lost and he scored. The old Liverpool guys can’t stand him.’
In 2015, Diouf was reported to have claimed on Senegalese radio that Gerrard ‘has never liked black people’ which the former Reds captain immediately rebuked.
And in 2017, in a BBC interview, Diouf took a swipe at Gerrard’s international achievements. ‘People like him in Liverpool but he never did anything for his country,’ he said.
‘I am Mr El Hadji Diouf, Mr Senegal but he is Mr Liverpool and Senegal is bigger than Liverpool and he has to know that.’
Another stain on Diouf’s legacy in the Premier League was his treatment of a fellow professional. In January 2011, while playing for Blackburn, it was alleged Diouf abused QPR striker Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground after suffering a broken leg in an FA Cup tie.
QPR manager Neil Warnock described Diouf as a ‘nasty little person’ and ‘the lowest of the low’ after the game.
Former QPR manager Neil Warnock blasted the player and claimed that calling him a sewer rat would be disrespectful to the animal following another controversial moment
Diouf allegedly abused QPR striker Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground after suffering a broken leg in an FA Cup tie
‘He’s broken both bones, his tibia and his fibula, and he’s gone to hospital but will travel home with us,’ said Warnock.
‘The lads were furious with El Hadji Diouf; [Mackie] had broken his leg and he is calling him all sorts on the pitch. There was no need to put the finger up and call him a disgrace and even the Blackburn people were embarrassed.
‘I can’t abide people like that, I don’t know why he wants to take on the world every week. For many years I have thought [Diouf] was the gutter type – I was going to call him a sewer rat but that might be insulting to sewer rats.
‘I think he is the lowest of the low and I can’t see him being at Blackburn much longer because I can’t see Steve Kean putting up with someone like that in the dressing room when he is trying to form a new image for Blackburn.
‘I think he will be the first to go and good riddance – I hope he goes abroad because I won’t miss watching him. He is a nasty little person.’
In all, Diouf spent time with seven clubs in the UK before departing Leeds in 2004 for Malaysian side Sabah FA.
A two-time African Player of the Year recipient and winner of major trophies with Liverpool and Rangers, Diouf has not been remembered for anything another than his trouble-making.
‘I am a lion, I am a bad loser and it’s not wrong to be a bad loser,’ he told the BBC in 2017. ‘I have got character and I want people to respect me.
‘I am an easy target. It’s easy to talk about El Hadji Diouf and I let them talk but I know in my heart I am a good guy. My family know, my population knows, my continent knows I am a good guy and that’s the best thing. The rest is not my problem.’
In this regard Diouf can not be argued with. He is loved in his homeland and even inspired the next generation of Senegalese footballers, including former Liverpool star Sadio Mane, who would go on to claim the nation’s first ever AFCON crown.
