El Hadji Diouf, a Senegalese footballer, was born on January 15, 1981 in Dakar and is married to Valerie. He is a versatile player, who can play as both a striker and a winger. He started his international career by playing his first match against Benin in April 2000. El Hadji Diouf was included in the Senegal national football team for the 2002 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup and contributed to the team’s win over France (1-0) and Sweden (2-1).
El Hadji Diouf was instrumental in his team’s entrance to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup and was eventually elected to the World Cup All-Star team. He was a part of the team that finished as runners-up at the 2002 African Nations Cup and was named African Footballer of the Year in February 2003. In 2004, he earned a place to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé in conjunction with FIFA's centenary celebrations, and became the youngest player on the list. As of May 2008, El Hadji Diouf has earned 41 international caps and has scored 16 goals for Senegal.
El Hadji Diouf started his career in football by joining Sochaux-Montbéliard in 1998 and made his first appearance for the club in a 2-1 win against Bastia on November 12, 1998. He was transferred to Stade Rennais in 1999 and scored once for the club in his 28 appearances. After his contract with Stade Rennais, he signed with Lens, a Pas-de-Calais club, in 2000, and in his two-year stint with the club, he played 55 matches, netting 18 goals.
In 2002, El Hadji Diouf joined Liverpool, an English club, as a striker and went on to be used predominantly on the right wing. He started his Liverpool career by netting a brace in his first appearance at Anfield in a match against Southampton. El Hadji Diouf scored three goals at the Worthington Cup and was instrumental for Liverpool to lift that Cup after the 2-0 win over Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium. Out of his eighty appearances for the Liverpool football club, he has netted six times.
El Hadji Diouf was sent on a season-long loan to the Bolton Wanderers, during which he performed impressively by scoring 9 goals in 27 appearances. Owing to his remarkable displays, he was signed by Bolton in the start of the 2005-06 season, following which El Hadji Diouf scored Bolton’s first European goal on September 15, 2005 in a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) 2-1 win against Lokomotiv Plovdiv at the Reebok Stadium. He scored a vital goal in a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at Fratton Park and helped Bolton secure its first European qualification. Owing to his direct running and flair, he was very popular with Bolton fans, and in his successful stint with the club, El Hadji Diouf featured in 87 matches, scoring 12 times.
On July 28, 2008, El Hadji Diouf signed a four-year contract with Sunderland at The Stadium of Light and following his move, Roy Keane, the manager of Sunderland, said that he was delighted to have him in the squad.
On January 3, 2008, El Hadji Diouf established ‘The Dioufy Foundation’, a charity foundation to help under-privileged children in Senegal and the United Kingdom, along with his friend Akon, a hip hop star.
