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Is it time for El Hadji Diouf to retire from football?

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Over the past 13 years El Hadji Diouf has had more than one controversial moment in his footballing career, gaining him a large number of haters. This has forced him to move between nine different clubs across France, England & Scotland. But should Diouf consider retiring from the game, before he upsets more people and potentially ruins other clubs reputations for signing him.

He first became known for the wrong reasons during his time in France where he began at Sochaux but was sent packing to Rennes after a succession of minor transgressions. After an initial positive start at the Ligue 1 club, he was involved in a car crash where he collided with another vehicle, injuring the driver. This became serious when, it was discovered he didn’t own a valid driving license. As a result of his age and remorse he was forced to do community service.

After a quite time at his third club Lens he moved to Liverpool after a successful 2002 world cup and immediately got mentioned in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. He started to become football supporters favorite player to hate and whenever he would receive the ball a chorus of boos would ring out around the stadium. This led to a number of spitting allegations with both fans and players, at West Ham, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth and most notably Celtic. During an UEFA Cup quarter-final match at Celtic Park Diouf  fell into the crowd with full-time approaching, and as he climbed to his feet a couple of fans touched his head. Diouf reacted by spitting at the fan in front of the television cameras.

After having spells with both Bolton and Sunderland, he moved to Blackburn Rovers where he continued his bad boy image and creating controversy by being questioned by the police over accusations of racial jibes at a Everton ball boy. He defended his actions, suggesting fans were throwing bananas at him and chanting abuse. In January he was loaned to Rangers, for the rest of the season, and managed to cause problems in the few months he was with the club. Most notably the incident in the old firm derby where he confronted Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, and was later sent off. This earned Diouf another £5000 fine and cemented his place in Celtic supporters most hatted.

The latest scandal has earned Diouf a five year ban from football related activities in his home country of Senegal. To make matters worse he failed to report on time to pre-season training, resulting in Blackburn manager, Steve Kean, debating whether to release him from the club. This latest controversy surely shows his involvement in football, especially in this country should come to an end, as he is not taking the game seriously and is damaging the reputation of the clubs associated with him. How many more incidents can occur until the football association decide to take further action on his future in the game.

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  • David Dougan says:

    Lennon started the confrontation with Diouf in that Old Firm match. I’m a Rangers fan but I don’t like Diouf and he offered little while with Rangers.

    I think he’ll leave Blackburn for nothing, but wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up at West Ham.

  • Mark says:

    Lennon did not start the confrontation. I think you will find diouf shouldered the Celtic physio as he ran on the pitch.
    If Blackburn do release him I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up back at rangers

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