El Hadji Diouf

EL Hadji Ousseynou Diouf (born 15 January 1981) is a Senegalese former professional footballer.

Throughout his career, Diouf played as a winger or a forward.

The game marked a watershed in his career when, in the 87th minute, he spat at a Celtic fan, causing crowd disturbances and Diouf to be interviewed by the police.

He received a two match ban and was fined two weeks wages with Liverpool making a donation of £60,000 to a Glasgow charity of Celtic's choice.

He made his debut appearance in a 2–1 win against Bastia on 12 November 1998, before moving to Rennes for the 1999–2000 season.

He moved to Lens the following season, spending two years at the Pas-de-Calais.

Having started his professional football career in France with Sochaux, Rennes and Lens, Diouf finalised a move to Premier League side Liverpool prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup for Senegal and went on to have a memorable tournament.

He has also played in England's top flight for Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers before a stint in the Scottish Premier League with Rangers.

In early June 2002 he was reportedly linked with the English club Liverpool who had also just signed his club and international compatriot Salif Diao.

The news initially broke following his Man of The Match performance in the opening FIFA World Cup 2002 1-0 group game vs France, who were the defending World and European Champions and one of the favourites to win the 2002 tournament.

Lens initially denied that the signing had been made, but it was finally confirmed on 2 June with an estimated price tag of £10m.

His continued impressive performances in the World Cup for Senegal, where they reached the quarter-finals, led to much excitement prior to his arrival in England.

Diouf was the striker that manager Gérard Houllier hoped would take the Premier League title from Arsenal, after Liverpool had finished in second place the previous season.

Diouf won praises for his early games for Liverpool including his first game at Anfield where he scored two goals, his first for the club, in a 3–0 win against Southampton on 24 August 2002.

He started the 2003 Football League Cup Final as Liverpool defeated Manchester United.

Liverpool fans had to wait until March 2003 for Diouf's next goal for Liverpool.

That occurred in a 2–0 win against Bolton Wanderers, in a game where he scored once and provided the assist for the second.

The next game saw Diouf play in a UEFA Cup match against Celtic at Parkhead which finished 1–1.

Diouf failed to score for the remainder of the 2002–03 season or at all in the 2003–04 season which saw him pick up 13 yellow and one red card which came on 7 January 2004 when he was sent-off in a 1–0 away win against Chelsea for fouling Adrian Mutu.

By then he had become unpopular due to both his attitude and his lack of goals.

Jamie Carragher later said of him "He has one of the worst strike rates of any forward in Liverpool history. He's the only no. 9 ever to go through a whole season without scoring, in fact he's probably the only no. 9 of any club to do that. He was always the last one to get picked in training."

At the beginning of the 2004–05 season he was loaned to Bolton Wanderers.

At the end of the season-long loan — and after scoring a mere six goals in 80 appearances with only three in the league — Diouf left Liverpool signing permanently for Bolton in the summer of 2005.

Bolton Wanderers bought Diouf from Liverpool for an undisclosed fee at the start of the 2005–06 season, after they had loaned the player for the 2004–05 season.

On 15 September 2005, Diouf scored Bolton's first ever goal in a European competition against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in a UEFA Cup match at the Reebok Stadium.

Bolton went on to win the game 2–1.

He was largely successful at Bolton and became a fans' favourite due to his flair and direct running.

Diouf confirmed in an interview with the BBC that he would be leaving Bolton at the end of the 2007–08 season and that his goal against Sunderland on 3 May marked his last appearance at the Reebok Stadium.

Diouf signed for Sunderland on 28 July 2008, after Bolton agreed to a transfer fee of £2.63m.

He signed a four-year contract at the Stadium of Light after undergoing a medical.

Diouf said that he was happy to join Sunderland.

Then-manager Roy Keane stated he was happy that Diouf had joined Sunderland saying: "EL Hadji has always been the kind of player opposition teams and supporters hate. That's why we're delighted to now have him in our squad."

Diouf made a promising start for Sunderland but failed to score in any of his sixteen appearances.

Diouf signed for Blackburn Rovers for a £2 million fee on 30 January 2009, signing a three-and-half-year deal after just six months at the Stadium of Light, rejoining former Bolton manager Sam Allardyce at the club.

He was given the number 18 shirt and scored his first goal for the club against Fulham at Craven Cottage on 11 March 2009 in a 2–1 win.

In 2011, he joined Football League Championship side Doncaster Rovers but was released at the end of the 2011–12 season following the club's relegation.

He then moved to Leeds United where he spent two seasons.

During his nine-year international career, he scored 21 goals in 69 caps, and also garnered considerable notoriety for a series of controversial incidents.

Born in Dakar, Senegal, Diouf came from a Serer background of the noble Diouf family.

Diouf started his career in France with Sochaux-Montbéliard.