Liverpool FC legend Steven Gerrard has been accused of racism by former teammate El-Hadji Diouf, after the midfielder claimed that the Senegalese was the biggest flop at Anfield during his time with the club.
Gerrard in his book, My Story, which is being serialised by The Daily Mail, has claimed that El-Hadji Diouf didn’t care about football and that it appeared as though football got in the way of his social life. Diouf scored a total of three goals in his three seasons at Anfield, before being loaned and eventually sold to Bolton Wanderers.
Here’s the excerpt from the book where Gerrard blasts El-Hadji Diouf:
We had finished as runners-up to Manchester United the season before and a combination of Diouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou was supposed to drive us to the title. It was probably the biggest waste of A?18m in Liverpoola s history.
We finished the season in fifth place and Diouf had sealed his place at the top of the list of Liverpool signings I liked least.
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It seemed to me that Diouf had no real interest in football and that he cared nothing about Liverpool.
But after a while I decided Diouf simply wasna t your usual footballer. It seemed to me as if football got in the way of his social life.
Liverpool are not a team that welcomes blacks — El-Hadji Diouf
However, the former Senegalese international has hit back at the accusations of Gerrard. The 34-year-old has accused Gerrard of racism and even went as far as saying that the English midfielder is jealous of him. Diouf also revealed that he had warned last season’s flop Mario Balotelli of Liverpool FC’s treatment of players who are black, unless they are English.
Speaking to Senegalese radio station, Radio Future Media, as quoted by Express, he said:
“We all saw how he made life difficult for Mario Balotelli in Liverpool.
“I warned him. Liverpool are not a team that welcomes blacks unless they are British. Otherwise, you have no chance. This is common knowledge.
“Gerrard has never liked black people. When I was in Liverpool, I showed him that I was black, I’m not English, but I will not let him walk all over me. All the time I spent there, he never dared to look me in the eye.
“Gerrard is just jealous. What I have done in football, he did not. When I came to Liverpool, I came up with the status of boss and he lives there.
“I am respected in world football, the greatest football experts have appointed me among the seven best players in the World Cup, the top 100 players of the century.
“Several big players do not belong. Everywhere I go out of my country, they worship me. [Gerrard], wherever he goes outside his city of Liverpool, will be insulted.”