The revelation of El Hadji Diouf’s X-rated dressing room bust-up with Steven Gerrard during their Liverpool days really should come as little surprise.
The Senegal winger was hardly a shrinking violet, courting controversy with remarkable regularity before, during and after his time in England.
Diouf’s feud with Gerrard, including a series of bizarre verbal attacks since his departure from Anfield in 2005, really is just the tip of the iceberg.
Ex-team-mates El-Hadji Diouf and Steven Gerrard had a long-standing dislike for each other
Diouf (left) squares up to his former Liverpool team-mate Jamie Carragher while at Bolton
Now, Florent Sinama Pongolle has recalled the time the pair almost came to blows at half-time during a pre-season friendly, with Diouf asking then manager Gerard Houllier to tell Gerrard he’d ‘f*** his mum’ before adding: ‘I’d do him in straight away.’
Their tit-for-tat exchanges continued long after Diouf moved to Bolton in 2005.
In his 2007 autobiography, Gerrard wrote: ‘Diouf was just interested in himself. His attitude was all wrong. I felt he wasn’t really a***d about putting his body on the line to get Liverpool back at the top.’
Diouf responded five years later, saying: ‘Gerrard was jealous of me back then as I had the world at my feet. There’s no one more selfish… he doesn’t care about anyone else.
‘Gerrard would rather Liverpool lost and he scored. The old Liverpool guys can’t stand him.’
In 2015, Diouf was reported to have claimed on Senegalese radio that Gerrard ‘has never liked black people’ which the former Reds captain immediately rebuked.
The Senegal winger was never one to back down from a confrontation during his career
Diouf also had a nasty habit of spitting, including in the face of Portsmouth’s Arjan de Zeeuw
And in 2017, in a BBC interview, Diouf took a swipe at Gerrard’s international achievements. ‘People like him in Liverpool but he never did 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 has to know that.’
Given Gerrard’s unimpeachable legend status at Anfield, Diouf, who scored just six goals in 79 appearances and two years with the club, was always fighting a losing battle.
And these verbal barbs pale into insignificance when compared with the many other entires on Diouf’s rap sheet, which don’t exactly show his character in the best light.
His penchant for spitting cast a shadow over his time in the Premier League, with repeated offences and allegations.
The year he arrived from Lens, 2002, he was accused of spitting at West Ham supporters in the away end at Anfield while warming up pre-match. 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 tie at Parkhead. Liverpool fined him two weeks’ wages and UEFA banned him for two matches.
Police also charged him with assault, to which he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, and was fined £5,000.
Diouf fell into the stands while chasing the ball during Liverpool’s UEFA Cup game with Celtic
Angry at being patted on the head by a Celtic fan, he spat in the direction of the stands
While on loan at Bolton in 2004, Diouf was again investigated by police for spitting a mouthful of juice at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan. He received a £500 fine for that offence.
And later the same month, he was accused of spitting in the face of Portsmouth player Arjan de Zeeuw during a Premier League game.
Bolton fined him two weeks’ wages and banned him for three games for what was becoming a shockingly common transgression.
Such was the concern over Diouf’s persistent spitting, Bolton manager Sam Allardyce considered sending him to a sports psychologist.
Another act of cheating that dogged Diouf’s reputation was diving to try and win penalties. In January 2005, a blatant dive led to Bolton’s winning goal against Blackburn and Allardyce conceded the player had ‘been doing it all his life.’
Following countless other incidents of simulation, Allardyce’s view was borne out in a 2006 interview in which Diouf argued diving is simply a part of the game.
Diouf was accused of diving to win penalties during his career and later admitted as such
Diouf dived to win a penalty for Bolton against Blackburn at Ewood Park in January 2005
Diouf had to be restrained by the assistant referee while celebrating a goal against Newcastle
The Senegal international squares up to Atletico Madrid’s Simao in a UEFA Cup fixture
‘Every player dives, not just me,’ he said. ‘If you see [Wayne] Rooney – how many times does he dive to try and get a penalty? It’s just because it’s me that people talk about it.
‘Sometimes when I dive to get a penalty it’s because, for me, the best footballer is a footballer who is very clever.’
Off the field, Diouf got into trouble again in December 2005 when banned from driving for 12 months and fined £3,000 for drink-driving.
He’d consumed three glasses of champagne at a team meal to celebrate Bolton’s win over Charlton before getting behind the wheel of his Mercedes 4×4.
Shortly after that, Diouf was accused of punching the former wife of Senegal team-mate Khalilou Fadiga in a Dakar nightclub, with prosecutors pushing for a six-month jail term. However, he was released without charge.
In October 2007, adding to his list of offences on the pitch, Diouf confessed to deliberately getting a red card while playing for Bolton so he could play for Senegal during the suspension.
Diouf is shown a red card by referee Steve Bennett during a FA Cup tie against Arsenal
Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira has a word in Diouf’s ear for a transgression during the cup tie
Diouf moved on from Bolton to Sunderland but then abruptly to Blackburn Rovers after just half a season on Wearside.
It emerged in the tabloids that Diouf had threatened to stab team-mate Anton Ferdinand during a dressing room bust-up following a 1-0 defeat at Fulham.
Three years later, Diouf was among six men arrested following a nightclub brawl in Manchester that also saw Ferdinand interviewed under police caution but not arrested.
Suffice to say that Diouf’s behaviour hadn’t improved any at Blackburn. He was questioned by the police again after allegations he made a racial slur to a 13-year-old ball boy during a match at Everton.
Diouf was accused of telling him to ‘f*** off, white boy’ after being unhappy at the way the ball was thrown back to him.
He also accused Everton fans of throwing banana on the pitch, though no evidence was found to support this and in the end Diouf was also cleared.
Diouf confronts Everton fans in the match he allegedly made a racial slur at a ball boy
He also mocked QPR player Jamie Mackie after he suffered a broken leg during a 2011 match
In January 2011, it was alleged Diouf abused QPR striker Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground after suffering a broken leg in an FA Cup tie.
QPR manager Neil Warnock described Diouf as a ‘nasty little person’ and ‘the lowest of the low’ after the game.
A loan from Blackburn to Glasgow Rangers soon afterwards threw Diouf into the powderkeg environment of the Old Firm with Celtic.
And, inevitably, Diouf clashed with Celtic captain Scott Brown during a Scottish Cup tie. Not one to back down from an argument, Brown celebrated in Diouf’s face after scoring an equalising goal.
Celtic captain Scott Brown celebrates in Diouf’s face after scoring in the Old Firm derby in 2011
The pair had clashed throughout the Scottish Cup fixture, played in a powderkeg atmosphere
Diouf had a pop at Celtic manager Neil Lennon after being sent off for dissent in the replay
In the replay, Diouf was one of three players sent off after an altercation with Celtic boss Neil Lennon.
Remarkably, Diouf returned to English football after that, playing for Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United.
He wasn’t done yet, either. There was a red card for making an offensive gesture – grabbing his groin – at Brighton fans after scoring a penalty for Leeds in 2013. His time at Elland Road soon unravelled.
With such an extensive rap sheet, it’s very easy to forget that Diouf starred for Senegal in their extraordinary World Cup in 2002 and was twice named African Footballer of the Year.
It was his performances on the world stage that earned him almost a decade in the Premier League but unfortunately his bad behaviour clouded all on-field achievements.
It was Senegal’s shock win over France to open the 2002 World Cup that made Diouf a star