Meet the former footballer hated by his own team-mates: Ex-Liverpool star spat at opposition fans, was labelled a ‘sewer rat’ by a rival manager and left a youngster ‘traumatised’ after fight with Steven Gerrard

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier thought he had pulled off a major coup when he signed 21-year-old El Hadji Diouf from Lens in the summer of 2002.

The Senegal international, bought for £10 million, made the Frenchman’s dive all the more impressive in South Korea and Japan.

Houllier’s pain after watching his country’s shock early exit from the World Cup would have been soothed by the knowledge he was welcoming a star from the Teranga Lions team who shocked the world.

Under the Frenchman, the Reds began to believe they could end their long wait for a top-flight title. In his three full seasons as sole leader, the team finished fourth, third and second: the top was all that remained.

In came Bruno Cheyrou, Salif Diao and his Senegalese teammate Diouf, headlining a trio that would see the Reds go over the top.

There was excitement and anticipation about the new signings as the Liverpool squad returned from holiday to start work for the 2002-03 season.

“I arrived for pre-season anticipating my first look at the players who would make us title winners,” wrote Anfield legend Jamie Carragher in his autobiography. ‘I returned home depressed the same evening.’

Cheyrou and Diao proved to be largely ineffective, while Diouf caused such problems that he is regarded by Liverpool supporters as one of the club’s worst signings of the Premier League era.

The forward made the most of his Liverpool career, scoring a goal on his home debut in a 3-0 win over Southampton. But those attacks would be Diouf’s last until March, by which time he had long since lost his place in the starting XI.

In reality, the problem wasn’t just his attitude and inability to connect with his teammates, but also what he produced on the field. Houllier had built a reputation as a shrewd player in the transfer market.

In previous windows the likes of John Arne Riise, Milan Baros, Jerzy Dudek, Emile Heskey and Sami Hyypia had arrived at the club – players who would be crucial in winning major trophies including the Champions League following the Frenchman’s departure.

And in the summer of 2002, he had used his extensive network in France to track down a young Lens striker who had turned heads by recording ten goals and five assists in his final season in Ligue 1.

Ironically, Liverpool passed up the opportunity to sign former Arsenal and Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka, who spent the second half of that season on loan on Merseyside, due to concerns about his attitude.

Instead, they got a player with fewer skills, with just as much baggage on and off the pitch.

‘We could of course have done better in terms of recruitment. But we lacked time to check and do the usual homework that we do before recruiting a player,” Hollier told the club Liverpool echo in 2015.

‘It’s not something against the player. It’s probably more something I regret not being able to do for health reasons.

‘I wish I had kept Nicolas Anelka instead of recruiting Diouf, but his brothers didn’t help him. Diouf is an excellent player. It’s not about his football skills, he’s top class.

“But his attitude, especially his spitting habit, sometimes caused us problems.”

Diouf’s penchant for spitting cast a shadow over his time in the Premier League, with repeated fouls and accusations.

The year he joined from Lens, he was accused of spitting at West Ham supporters during the pre-match warm-up during the away match at Anfield. 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 at Parkhead. Liverpool fined him two weeks’ wages and UEFA suspended him for two matches.

Police also charged him with assault, after which he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty and was fined £5,000.

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. For this offense he was fined £500.

And later that same month he was accused of spitting in the face of Portsmouth captain Arjan de Zeeuw during a Premier League match.

Bolton fined him two weeks’ wages and suspended him for three matches for what was becoming a shockingly common offence.

Concerns over Diouf’s persistent spitting were so great that Bolton manager Sam Allardyce considered sending him to a sports psychologist.

Prior to his departure from Anfield, Diouf made sure he got on the wrong side of some of his teammates, most notably captain Steven Gerrard.

In 2020, then Liverpool youngster Florent Sinama Pongolle revealed that the pair almost clashed at half-time during a pre-season friendly, with Diouf asking manager Houllier to tell Gerrard he would fuck his mother before committing to it added: “I’d put it in straight away.”

“Can you imagine the young people seeing this and thinking this is what professionals at that level are like?” Added Pongolle.

Diouf and Gerrard’s exchanges continued long after the Senegalese left for Bolton in 2005.

In his 2007 autobiography, Gerrard wrote: ‘Diouf was only interested in himself. His attitude was all wrong. I got the feeling he didn’t really feel like putting his body on the line to get Liverpool back on top.”

Diouf responded five years later, saying: ‘Gerrard was jealous of me then because I had the world at my feet. There is no one more selfish…he doesn’t care about anyone else.

‘Gerrard would have preferred Liverpool to lose and he scored. The old Liverpool boys can’t stand him.’

In 2015, Diouf reportedly claimed on Senegalese radio that Gerrard ‘never liked black people’, prompting an immediate rebuke from the former Reds captain.

And in 2017, Diouf lashed out at Gerrard’s international achievements in a BBC interview. “People like him in Liverpool but he has never done 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 needs 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 that Diouf abused QPR striker Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground after suffering a broken leg during an FA Cup match.

QPR manager Neil Warnock described Diouf after the match as an ‘annoying little person’ and ‘the lowest of the low’.

“He broke both bones, his tibia and his fibula, and he went to the hospital but will travel home with us,” Warnock said.

‘The boys were furious with El Hadji Diouf; [Mackie] had broken his leg and he calls him all kinds of things on the field. There was no need to raise the finger and call him a disgrace, and even the Blackburn people were ashamed.

‘I can’t stand people like that, I don’t know why he wants to conquer the world every week. For years I thought [Diouf] was of the gutter type – I wanted to call him a sewer rat, but that might be offensive to sewer rats.

‘I think he is the lowest of the low and I don’t see him staying at Blackburn much longer because I don’t see Steve Kean putting up with someone like that in the dressing room as he tries to shape a new image for the club. Blackburn.

“I think he will be the first to go and I hope he goes abroad because I won’t miss watching him. He’s an annoying little person.’

In total, Diouf spent time at seven clubs in Britain before leaving Leeds for Malaysian side Sabah FA in 2004.

Diouf is a two-time African Player of the Year and winner of major trophies with Liverpool and Rangers. He is only remembered for his troubles.

“I’m a lion, I’m a sore loser and there’s nothing wrong with being a sore loser,” he told the BBC in 2017. ‘I have character and I want people to respect me.

‘I’m an easy target. It’s easy to talk about El Hadji Diouf and I let them talk, but I know in my heart that I’m a good guy. My family knows it, my people know it, my continent knows I’m a good guy and that’s the best. The rest is not my problem.’

In this regard, Diouf cannot be disputed. He is beloved in his home country and even inspired the next generation of Senegalese footballers, including former Liverpool star Sadio Mane, who would go on to claim the country’s first-ever AFCON crown.