Diouf: El Hadji Ousseynou (El Hadji)

2012-2014 (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

Striker/Winger

Born: Dakar, Senegal: 15-01-1981

Debut: v Shrewsbury Town (League Cup)(Substitute): 11-08-2012

5’11” 11st 4lb (2012)

Diouf had a poor upbringing in his hometown and this lay the seeds for his constant brushes with authorities both on and off the pitch. He had constantly been in trouble throughout his youth and had the reputation of being a self-confessed thug. He emigrated to France and there in August 1998 joined the French Ligue One side FC Sochaux-Montbeliard, where he played for one season, while still only seventeen, starting eleven League games and coming on four times as a substitute, but without scoring in the 1998-99 season, leaving at the end of the season. He had been involved in minor offences while at Sochaux and he moved to FC Stade Rennes in August 1999, for the 1999-2000 season and started seventeen League games and was used as a substitute eleven times and scored one goal against FC Girondins Bordeaux on 20th August 1999. His brushes with the law continued and he was given community service for being involved in a car crash while driving without a licence. He signed for RC Lens in July 2000. He scored eighteen goals in fifty-four League games in two seasons for Lens and came close to winning the title in his second season, before Liverpool signed him for £10 million prior to the 2002 World Cup on 25th June 2002, on a three year contract. While at Lens he had developed a habit of ill-discipline accumulating twenty yellow cards and one red, in the two seasons he was there to enhance that reputation he hard started with nine yellows and one red while at FC Stade Rennes. Diouf was the key player in Senegal's team that reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in South Korea and Japan and was voted the Best African player in 2002. He made his Liverpool debut on 11th August 2002 in the 0-1 Charity Shield defeat by Arsenal at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff, and scored his first Liverpool goals on 24th August 2002, when he netted twice in his first game at Anfield, as the Reds beat Southampton 3-0. However, then the goals dried up until November, when he netted in a 3-1 League Cup win over Southampton at Anfield, and he became more used to being a substitute than an established first-team regular. He did score twice more in the League Cup, the first from the spot in the fifty-fourth minute of a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town at Anfield and the second in the ninth minute of a 2-0 win over Sheffield United at Anfield in the second leg of the semi-final. His final League goal came on 8th March 2003, in the forty-fourth minute of a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers, once more at Anfield. It was his final goal for the Anfield club. In the second half of the season Liverpool started using him more as a right-winger than a striker and his all-round play improved as he became more of a team player than a selfish goal-scorer. However, Liverpool captain Steve Gerrard remained sceptical. "Diouf arrived with the most potential, and he ended up causing the most aggravation," he said in his autobiography. "As Gerard (Houllier) started playing him on the right. I knew he was a poor signing. I wasn't Diouf's number one fan. Being around Melwood and Anfield I knew which players were hungry, which players had Liverpool at heart. Diouf was just interested in himself. His attitude was all wrong. I felt he wasn't really arsed about putting his body on the line to get Liverpool back at the top." However he had an admirer in Phil Thompson, the Liverpool Assistant Manager, who said, "El Hadji is a lovely lad and can play an important part in the rest of the season." He made that statement before the fifth round tie with Celtic in the UEFA Cup, but Diouf let him down in the match when his actions were not one of a "lovely lad". Diouf disgraced the red shirt of Liverpool by spitting on a Celtic fan following full-time at Celtic Park. UEFA gave Diouf a two-match ban and he was fined two weeks' wages by the club. Diouf apologised but then added later in Senegalese papers he would have beaten the fan who struck him on the head if he had done the same outside a football ground. On 2nd March 2003, he won a Football League Cup-winners' medal as Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-0 at the Millenium Stadium, with Diouf playing ninety minutes at Outside Right. Diouf was a regular in the first half of the 2003-04 season that cost Houllier his job and the Senegalese didn't get on the scoresheet at all that season as Jamie Carragher emphasised later: "He thinks he's a bit of a star doesn't he?", Carragher said, clearly unimpressed by his former teammate. "But he has one of the worst strike rates of any forward in Liverpool history. He's the only number nine ever to go through a whole season without scoring, in fact he's probably the only number nine of any club to do that. He was always the last one to get picked in training." He played his last game for Liverpool on 17th April 2004, in a 0-0 draw with Fulham at Anfield. He scored three goals in forty-one League starts and fourteen more from the bench. He also scored three times in seven starts in the League Cup but failed to score in four starts in F.A. Cup ties and fourteen games in Europe, of which five were as a substitute. Diouf joined Bolton Wanderers on loan on 19th August 2004 and stayed for the whole of the 2004-05 season, quickly scoring nine League goals for them and that led to a permanent deal in the close season on 16th June 2005, as soon as his Liverpool contract had expired. In the loan period with the Trotters he scored nine League goals from twenty-three starts and four games from the bench, but did not add to that tally in one start and two games from the bench in the F.A. Cup and two starts in the League Cup. Diouf's summary of his Liverpool career maybe reveals what his main motivation is in football: "When I got to Liverpool everything the manager would say one thing to me and then he would go and do the opposite. I am the kind of person that doesn’t wait around. If something isn’t really working then I prefer to say so. it either works or I am out of there. and that’s what’s happened. There are more important things in life. I went to Liverpool, I don’t regret playing there, I won matches, I played for a great club, I played with great players, and I also earned a lot of money." He signed a three year contract with Bolton at an undisclosed transfer fee which was thought to be in the region of £4 million. Sam Allardyce could hardly believe his luck: "El Hadji has all the skill in the world to become one of our most significant signings in the modern era of this great club," the Bolton boss said. "Last season he was a revelation and no one more than him relished the opportunity of resurrecting his career with us. We will give him the platform he needs to become one of Europe's top strikers again - that's how much confidence I have in the lad." He spent four relatively successful seasons at The Reebok scoring twelve more goals in the League in eighty-seven games of which eight were as a substitute, he also started two F.A. Cup ties and started one, and made three appearances from the bench in the League Cup, without scoring and three goals in three starts and three games from the bench in the UEFA Cup, after signing permanently for Bolton. Whilst he was on loan at Bolton, Diouf was charged by the police for spitting at an eleven-year-old Middlesbrough fan during a 1–1 draw in November 2004. Then, on 27 November 2004, Diouf spat in the face of Portsmouth player Arjan de Zeeuw. He was fined two weeks' salary by Bolton and was suspended for three games by the FA after pleading guilty to a charge of unacceptable conduct. Bolton Manager Sam Allardyce subsequently disclosed that he had sent Diouf to a sports psychologist. Diouf had indicated that he would not be renewing his contract at Bolton and on 28th July 2008, Roy Keane's Sunderland came in with a bid of £2,600,000 and a four year contract. Both Bolton and Diouf were happy with the arrangement. He was not a success at the Stadium of Light and after making his debut against his former club, Liverpool, at home on 16th August 2008, with Fernando Torres getting the only goal of the game while Diouf was replaced by Michael Chopra with nine minutes to the final whistle, he failed to score a single goal while with Liverpoo. He started eleven and came on as a substitute three times in the League and srated once in the F.A. Cup and once in the League Cup, before his former Manager Sam Allardyce paid £2 million to take him to his new club Blackburn Rovers on 30th January 2009 on a three and a half year contract. Sam Allardyce later revealed he had only paid £1 miilion to bring Diouf to Ewood Park. He made his Blackburn debut as a substitute for Keith Andrews at the start of the second half in a 0-2 home loss to Aston Villa on 7th February 2009. He scored his first and only goal, of the season at Craven Cottage when he scored a sixty-ninth minute equalizer in a game that Blackburn went on to win 2-1. Diouf, who never seemed far away from something controversial happening to him or around him, had one of his more stable seasons in 2009-10, appearing in twenty-six Premier League matches for Blackburn. He also played against Aston Villa in the F.A. Cup Third Round but managed to get himself sent off before half-time! Sam Allardyce, who previously managed Diouf at Bolton, had shown a lot of faith in a player who so often seemed to let himself and his employers down. As if to prove this yet again, Diouf was accused, on 20th September 2009, by police after he had allegedly made a racial slur to a ball-boy during a game at Everton, telling him to "fuck off, white boy". Diouf defended his acts by claiming Everton fans were racially insulting and throwing bananas at him, but police found no evidence of this. The Senegalese then managed to get himself arrested and charged with motoring offences in April 2010. Diouf was loaned to Scottish giants, Rangers, for the second half of the 2010-11 season. He scored once in fifteen League games, of which nine were as a substitute. Apart from playing in fifteen League matches, he was also a member of the team that won the Scottish League cup at Hampden Park in March, as he came on as a late substitute towards the end of extra time. Two months later Rangers clinched their third successive Scottish Premier League title. Diouf had played in enough matches to qualify for a winners' medal in that competition too. On 2nd March 2011, Diouf was one of three Rangers players sent off in the Old Firm Derby, after an altercation at the touchline with Neil Lennon and dissent to the referee at full time. Diouf was fined £5000 in April 2011 and warned over his future conduct by the Scottish Football Association. He started two games in the Scottish Cup, played once as a substitute in the Scottish League Cup and scored once in three starts and one game from the bench in the UEFA Cup. Diouf's contract with Blackburn was ended 'by mutual consent' in the summer of 2011 after new manager Steve Kean had indicated that Diouf was not in his plans for the first team at Ewood Park. The player returning late for pre-season training probably forced the Manager's hand. He had scored four goals in sixty League games, of which five were from the bench, and also started two F.A. Cup ties without scoring. In October 2011 Diouf was offered a trial at West Ham United, now managed by Sam Allardyce, his former manager at both Bolton and Blackburn. Ultimately, the Hammers decided not to offer him a contract, citing the player's lack of fitness and bad reputation as the reasons. His colourful past did not prevent the Championship's Doncaster Rovers from offering him a three-month contract. He made his Doncaster debut on 1st November 2011 in a 1-3 home defeat by Middlesbrough, when he was replaced by Giles Barnes after seventy-three minutes. He quickly got on the scoresheet by scoring twice in his second game in a 3-2 away win at Ipswich TOwn just four days later. He scored in the eighteenth and thirty-ninth minutes before being replaced by James O'Connor in the eighty-second minute. On 2nd February 2012, Diouf signed a six month deal with the view to an extra year on his contract. However, Doncaster were relegated from The Championship, and on 26th April 2012 Diouf revealed he was very keen on moving to Leeds United despite history between him and manager Neil Warnock. Warnock had called him "lower than a sewer rat" after an incident involving Jamie Mackie, on 8th January 2011, in Blackburn Rovers 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers in the F.A. Cup Third Round, when Neil Warnock blamed Diouf for taunting Jamie Mackie, who lay injured with a broken leg. While at the Keepmoat Stadium Diouf scored six goals in the League from twenty-two starts and also played one F.A. Cup tie as a substitute without scoring. On 15th April 2012, Diouf and five other men were arrested following reports of a nightclub brawl in Manchester. One man was seriously injured and Diouf was bailed for a week. On 19th July 2012 it was announced that Diouf would not face charges for assault for the incident. On 9th August 2012, Diouf started training with the Leeds United first-team. On 11th August 2012 Leeds United signed Diouf on a non-contract basis. He made his Leeds debut on 11th August 2012 in the home League Cup tie with Shrewsbury Town, when he came on as a seventy-sixth minute substitute for Ross McCormack. He made his League debut in the first game of the season as a substitute when he replaced the injured Paul Green at the end of the first half of the game with Wolverhampton Wanderers on 18th August 2012. He made his run-on debut at Peterborough United a week later. His first goal arrived two minutes before half-time in a 3-3 home draw with former club, Blackburn Rovers, on 1st September 2012. After that game he signed a short term contract until January 2013. He scored twice in the away game with Bristol City on 29th September and on 2nd October he was made "Captain for the Day" against his former club, Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium. He signed a new one-and-a-half-year contract on 14th December 2012. He was sent off in United's final home game against Brighton & Hove Albion on 27th April 2013 for an obscene gesture to the away fans after scoring his fifth League goal from the spot in the seventieth minute. He missed the final game at Watford as a result and still had two games of the 2013-14 season to serve because of the ensuing suspension, but a shin infection caused him to miss the lead up to the new season. There had been rumours that Diouf had signed for Guinea club AS Kaloum in May 2013, but this proved unfounded. He played three times as a substitute in the League in August, before starting in the 1-2 home loss to Burnley on 21st September 2013 and a substitute appearance in the League Cup at Newcastle United. However, little was seen of Diouf in any Leeds teams for several months as he dealt with personal problems, such as the death of his mentor, Senegal coach, Bruno Metsu, and Nelson Mandela. He did make one starting appearance for the first team on 28th January 2014 against Ipswich Town in a 2-1 win at Elland Road. It turned out to be his final game in the Leeds colours as he was released by the club on 16th May 2014. He joined second-tier Malaysian side Sabah FA on a one year contract on 11th November 2014. He was appointed captain and hopes to lead them from the Malaysian Premier League into the Super League. Diouf has twice been named African Footballer of the year and has scored twenty-five goals in sixty-three starts and two games from the bench for Senegal.