El Hadji Diouf

El Hadji Diouf

Personal information
Full name	El-Hadji Ousseynou Diouf
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Forward/ Winger
Team information
Current team	Sunderland
Number	TBA

For the player known as El Hadji Diouf currently playing for AEK Athens FC, please see El Hadji Diouf (born 1988).

El-Hadji Ousseynou Diouf (Arabic: الحاج ديوف) (born January 15 1981) is a Senegalese footballer. He plays for Sunderland and Senegal. Arguably one of Senegal's best players, Diouf is a playmaker who plays deep on the wing or as a deep lying forward.

Club career

Early career

Diouf started his career in France with Sochaux-Montbéliard. He made his first appearance in 2-1 win against Bastia on November 12 1998 before moving to Stade Rennais for the 1999-00 season. He moved to Lens the following season, spending two years at the Pas-de-Calais club before moving to English club Liverpool in 2002.

Liverpool

Liverpool bought Diouf from Lens for £10 million, prior to Senegal's impressive 2002 World Cup run. Then coach Gérard Houllier put his faith in Diouf and made the choice to sign him and not take up the option of permamently signing loan star Nicolas Anelka.

Diouf was originally signed as a striker but ended up being utilised mainly on the right wing. Diouf scored just six goals in his first season including three in the Worthington Cup. Liverpool went on to defeat Manchester United 2-0 in the final at the Millenium Stadium that year, ensuring he got a medal.

In the 2003/04 season, he became the first Liverpool player to wear the number nine shirt to fail to score a goal in an entire season. He made 33 appearances and went over 14 months without a goal.

Despite his impressive start to his Liverpool career where he scored a brace on his Anfield debut against Southampton F.C, he only managed 6 goals in 80 appearances, failing to live up to expectations.

His spell at Liverpool was marred with controversy, most notably where a spat at a Celtic fan in a UEFA Cup tie.

After a series of disciplinary problems Diouf was then off-loaded by new manager Rafael Benitez on a season's loan to Bolton Wanderers.

Bolton

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 September 15 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 has largely been a huge success at Bolton and has become a fans' favourite due to his flair and direct running. He remains an integral part of the Bolton side. Diouf recently confirmed in an interview with the BBC that he would be leaving Bolton at the end of the season and that his goal against Sunderland on 3rd May marked his last appearance at the Reebok Stadium. It is now believed that Bolton have accepted a £2.5 million offer from Sunderland for Diouf's services next season. Then he played in islamabad united and then he move to fsd united and they pay him 2mllion

Sunderland

Diouf signed for Sunderland on July 28 2008.

Charity work

In conjunction with long time friend Akon, Diouf founded his own charity to help under-privileged children in Senegal and the United Kingdom. 'The Dioufy Foundation' was officially launched on the January 3, 2008

International career

Diouf's international career started in April 2000 against Benin. He has earned 41 international caps and scored 16 goals for his country.

He played for Senegal in their 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign and was elected to the World Cup All-Star team, after leading Senegal to the quarter-finals and victories over France (1-0) and Sweden (2-1). Senegal eventually lost 1-0 in extratime to Turkey.

He was also part of the Senegal team which is the runner-up in 2002 African Nations Cup.

Diouf was banned from international football for four matches in 2004 for a verbal assault on referee Ali Bujsaim.

In 2004, he was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé in conjunction with FIFA's centenary celebrations.

In October 2007, Diouf retired from international football, stating he had been frustrated by organisational problems with the side. However, Senegal coach Henri Kasperczak announced later in the month that he would name Diouf in the next squad .

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |-Durham County Cricket |1998-99||Sochaux-Montbéliard||Division 1||15||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||15||0 |- |1999-00||Stade Rennais||Division 1||27||2||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||28||2 |- |2000-01||rowspan="2"|Lens||rowspan="2"|Division 1||28||8||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||28||8 |- |2001-02||26||10||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||26||10 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2002-03||rowspan="2"|Liverpool||rowspan="2"|Premier League||29||3||3||0||5||3||9||0||46||6 |- |2003-04||26||0||1||0||2||0||4||0||33||0 |- |2004-05||rowspan="4"|Bolton Wanderers||rowspan="4"|Premier League||27||9||3||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||32||9 |- |2005-06||20||3||colspan="2"|-||1||0||6||1||27||4 |- |2006-07||33||5||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||35||5 |- |2007-08||34||4||1||0||1||0||6||2||42||6 |- |2008-09||rowspan="1"|Sunderland||rowspan="1"|Premier League||0||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0 |- Template:Football player statistics 396||19||20||10||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||116||29 Template:Football player statistics 4169||24||9||0||12||3||25||3||215||30 Template:Football player statistics 5265||43||29||10||12||3||25||3||331||59 |}

External links

• Profile at Boltonwanderers.us
• El Hadji Diouf at Soccerbase
• Profile, stats and pictures of El-Hadji Diouf on Sitercl.Com
• http://www.dioufyfoundation.org/

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