El Hadji Diouf

Personal information
Full name	El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Striker, Winger
Team information
Current team	Blackburn Rovers
Number	23

El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf (Template:Lang-ar) (born January 15, 1981) is a Senegalese footballer. He plays for Blackburn Rovers and Senegal. Diouf is a playmaker who plays deep on the wing or as a deep lying forward.

Diouf is married and has a daughter, Kenza. 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 January 3, 2008.

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 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 Millennium 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. Toward the end of his spell at Liverpool new manager Rafael Benítez loaned Diouf to Bolton Wanderers on a season-long loan.

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 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 2007/2008 season and that his goal against Sunderland on 3rd May marked his last appearance at the Reebok Stadium.^[1]

Diouf signed for Sunderland on July 28, 2008, after Bolton agreed to a transfer fee of £2.6 million.^[2] He signed a four year contract at The Stadium of Light after undergoing a medical.^[3] Diouf revealed that he was happy to join Sunderland.^[4] Former Sunderland manager, Roy Keane, said he was happy that a player who "teams and supporters hate" had joined Sunderland, "El-Hadji has always been the kind of player opposition teams and supporters hate, a thorn in the side. That's why we're delighted to now have him in our squad."^[2]He played 14games without scoring a single goal in his time at sunderland and left the club through lack of games and that Keane was Sacked.

However Diouf ceased to be a regular in the Sunderland first team when Roy Keane left as Sunderland manager, and speculation began to mount prior to the January transfer window of 2009 as to whether he would remain at the club. It was later revealed that Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce was eager to bring Diouf to Ewood Park.

Diouf stated that if he did not get more games for Sunderland he would consider leaving the club. However, new Sunderland manager, Ricky Sbragia declared his wish for Diouf to remain at Sunderland. On 30 January 2009, Diouf signed for Blackburn Rovers.^[5]

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.^[6]

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. He is also the youngest player on the list. In October 2007, Diouf retired from international football, stating he had been frustrated by organisational problems with the side.^[7] However, Senegal coach Henri Kasperczak announced later in the month that he would name Diouf in the next squad.^[8]

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||13||0||0||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||14||0 |- |2009-||rowspan="1"|Blackburn Rovers||rowspan="1"|Premier League||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0 |- Template:Football player statistics 396||19||20||10||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||116||29 Template:Football player statistics 4180||24||9||0||12||3||25||3||226||30 Template:Football player statistics 5275||43||29||10||12||3||25||3||341||59 |}

Source:^[9]

• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• Bolton Wanderers Profile at Burnden Aces
• El Hadji Diouf at Soccerbase
• Profile at Boltonwanderers.us

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Patrick Mboma	African Footballer of the Year 2001 – 2002	Succeeded by Samuel Eto'o
Preceded by Samuel Kuffour	BBC African Footballer of the Year 2002	Succeeded by Jay Jay Okocha