A story about Steven Gerrard’s disdain for former Liverpool teammate El-Hadji Diouf has reemerged. Gerrard and Diouf were teammates at Liverpool during the 2000s but didn’t get on during the pair’s time together on Merseyside, and both men have said negative things about the other in recent years.
Diouf joined Liverpool in 2002 after impressing for Senegal at the World Cup but flopped at Anfield, scoring just six goals in 80 appearances across the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. Diouf spent the following campaign on loan at Bolton before joining them permanently in 2005.
Diouf was a controversial character throughout his time in England and was involved in a number of unsavoury flashpoints. In 2003, he was charged with assault and fined two weeks’ wages after spitting at a Celtic fan during a UEFA Cup match, while several years later English manager Neil Warnock likened Diouf to a ‘sewer rat’ for allegedly taunting QPR player Jamie Mackie while he was lying on the floor with a broken leg.
Fight in Pre-Season
‘Tell him I’ll f*** his mum’
Back to Diouf’s time at Liverpool, and in 2020 the Reds’ former French striker Florent Sinama Pongolle recalled how the pair almost came to blows during a pre-season match. “Half-time of a pre-season game. Fight between Diouf and Gerrard. I was traumatised,” Pongolle told journalist Walid Acherchour, via Sport Witness. “Can you imagine the young ones seeing this and thinking that’s what professionals are like at that level?
“At half-time, in the dressing room. Stevie G is all like, ‘You have to pass, you have to pass’ and [Diouf] just loses it. He didn’t speak English. His English was rubbish. You know what he did? They hated each other so much. Steven Gerrard arrives, he insults Diouf. ‘Hey, you f*****’. And [Diouf] couldn’t answer, so he grabs [former Liverpool boss] Gerard Houllier and says: ‘Tell him, I’ll f*** his mum’. He came in and said: ‘I’m not his mate, I’ll do him in straight away’.”
War of Words in Recent Years
Pair continued to be critical of each other
Diouf may have left Liverpool for good in 2005, but over a decade later he was still firing shots at Liverpool’s legendary former captain. In 2017, he said: “Stevie G was a very good player. People like him in Liverpool but he never did anything for his country. 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.”
In his 2007 autobiography, Gerrard questioned Diouf’s commitment on the pitch. “I wasn’t Diouf’s No 1 fan,” Gerrard said. “Being around Melwood and Anfield I knew which players were hungry, which players had Liverpool at heart. 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.”