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 when he 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 was largely success at Bolton and has become 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 2007/2008 season and that his goal against Sunderland on 3rd May marked his last appearance at the Reebok Stadium. Ironically, Diouf joined Sunderland on the 28 July 2008, after Bolton accepted a bid thought to be around £2.5 million.

Sunderland

Diouf signed for Sunderland on July 28 2008. He signed a four year contract at The Stadium of Light after undergoing a medical.

Sunderland manager,Roy Keane,said he too was happy that a player who "teams and supporters love to hate" had joined Sunderland

"El-Hadji has always been the kind of player opposition teams and supporters love to hate, a thorn in the side.That's why we're delighted to now have him in our squad."

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/

Template:S-awards