Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier thought he had made a big coup when he signed 21-year-old El Hadji Diouf from Lens in the summer of 2002.
The Senegal international, bought for £10m, made the Frenchman's move look even more impressive in South Korea and Japan.
Houllier's pains after watching his country's shock early exit from the World Cup would have been eased by the knowledge that he was welcoming back a star from the Teranga Lions team that shocked the world.
With the Frenchman, the Reds had begun to believe they could end their long wait for a first-class title. In his three full seasons at the helm alone, the team finished fourth, third and second: the only thing left was the top.
In came Bruno Cheyrou, Salif Diao and Senegalese team-mate Diouf, the headline act of a trio that would take the Reds over the top.
There was excitement and anticipation for the new signings when the Liverpool team returned from their holidays to begin work for the 2002-03 campaign.
El Hadji Diouf joined Liverpool from Ligue 1 side Lens for £10 million in the summer of 2002.
At the time, Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier believed that the addition of the striker would allow the Reds to clinch the Premier League title.
Diouf starred in a Senegal team that shocked the world at the 2022 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
“I arrived at pre-season training expecting to see for the first time the players who would make us title winners,” Anfield legend Jamie Carragher wrote in his autobiography. “I returned home that same night in a state of depression.”
Cheyrou and Diao proved largely ineffective, while Diouf caused such problems that Liverpool fans consider him one of the club's worst signings of the Premier League era.
The striker had the best possible start to his Liverpool career, scoring a brace on his home debut in a 3-0 win over Southampton. But those goals would be Diouf's last until March, when he had long since lost his place in the starting eleven.
In truth, the problem wasn't just his attitude and lack of connection with his teammates, but also what he produced on the field. Houllier had earned a reputation as an intelligent operator in the transfer market.
Previous windows had seen players such as John Arne Riise, Milan Baros, Jerzy Dudek, Emile Heskey and Sami Hyypia arrive at the club, players who would be crucial to winning important trophies, including the Champions League after the Frenchman's departure.
And in the summer of 2002 he tapped into his extensive network in France to discover a young Lens striker who turned heads by registering 10 goals and five assists in his final season in Ligue 1.
Ironically, Liverpool passed up the opportunity to sign former Arsenal and Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka, who had spent the second half of that season on loan on Merseyside, due to concerns about his attitude.
Instead, they got a lower skill player with the same background on and off the field.
The Senegalese made his Liverpool the best star with a double against Southampton on his home debut
“Obviously, we could have done better in terms of recruiting. But we lacked time to check and do the usual homework that we do before signing a player,” Hollier told the Liverpool Echo in 2015.
'It's not something against the player. It's probably more something I regret not being able to do for health reasons.
'I wish he had kept Nicolas Anelka, instead of recruiting Diouf, but his brothers didn't help him. Diouf is an exceptional player. It's not about his football qualities, he is first class.
“But his attitude sometimes, especially his habit of spitting, caused us problems.”
Diouf's penchant for spitting shadowed his time in the Premier League, with repeated offenses and accusations.
The year he arrived from Lens he was accused of spitting at West Ham fans at the away game at Anfield while warming up before the game. 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 match at Parkhead. Liverpool fined him two weeks' wages and UEFA banned him for two games.
Police also charged him with assault, changing his plea from not guilty to guilty and fining him £5,000.
Diouf was found guilty of spitting at Celtic fans during the UEFA Cup quarter-final match at Parkhead.
Another notable example of his nasty habit came while playing for Bolton when the striker was accused of spitting in the face of Portsmouth player Arjan de Zeeuw.
While on loan at Bolton in 2004, Diouf was again investigated by police after spitting a drink of juice at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan. He was fined £500 for that offence.
And later that month he was accused of spitting in the face of Portsmouth captain Arjan de Zeeuw during a Premier League match.
Bolton fined him two weeks' wages and banned him from three matches for what was becoming a surprisingly common transgression.
Such was the concern over Diouf's persistent spitting that Bolton manager Sam Allardyce considered sending him to a sports psychologist.
Before his departure from Anfield, Diouf made sure to anger several of his teammates, especially captain Steven Gerrard.
In 2020, then-Liverpool youngster Florent Sinama Pongolle revealed that the pair almost came to blows at half-time during a pre-season friendly, with Diouf asking manager Houllier to tell Gerrard that he had 'fucked his mother' before adding: “I would kill him immediately.”
“Can you imagine young people watching this and thinking that this is what professionals are like at that level?” Pongolle added.
The exchanges between Diouf and Gerrard continued long after the Senegalese's departure for Bolton in 2005.
Diouf and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard almost come to blows at half-time during a pre-season match
In his 2007 autobiography, Gerrard wrote: “Diouf was only interested in himself. His attitude was completely wrong. “I felt like he wasn’t really interested in risking his body to get Liverpool back to the top.”
Diouf responded five years later, saying: “Gerrard was jealous of me back then because I had the world at my feet.” There is no one more selfish… he doesn't care about anyone else.
“Gerrard would rather Liverpool lose and score. The old Liverpool boys can't stand it.
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.
And in 2017, in a BBC interview, Diouf criticized 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 it.”
Another stain on Diouf's Premier League legacy was his treatment of a fellow professional. In January 2011, while playing for Blackburn, Diouf was alleged to have 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 “disgusting little person” and “the lowest of the low” after the match.
Former QPR manager Neil Warnock criticized the player and claimed that calling him a sewer rat would be disrespectful to the animal after another controversial moment.
Diouf allegedly abused QPR striker Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground after suffering a broken leg in an FA Cup match.
“He has broken both bones, the tibia and the fibula, and has gone to hospital, but he will travel home with us,” Warnock said.
«The boys were furious with El Hadji Diouf; (Mackie) had broken his leg and is calling him all kinds of names on the field. There was no need to raise the finger and call it a disgrace and even the people of Blackburn felt ashamed.
'I can't stand people like that, I don't know why they want to conquer the world every week. For many years I thought (Diouf) was a gutter type; I was going to call him a sewer rat, but that might be insulting to sewer rats.
“I think he's the lowest of the low and I can't see him at Blackburn for much longer because I can't imagine Steve Kean putting up with someone like that in the dressing room when he's trying to form a new image for Blackburn.
“I think he will be the first to go and go. I hope he goes abroad because I won't stop seeing him.” He is an unpleasant little person.
In total, Diouf spent time at seven UK clubs before leaving Leeds in 2004 to sign for Malaysian side Sabah FA.
Diouf, a two-time winner of the African Player of the Year award and winner of major trophies with Liverpool and Rangers, has not been remembered for anything other than his problems.
“I'm a lion, I'm a bad loser and it's not bad to be a bad loser,” he told the BBC in 2017. “I have character and I want people to respect me.”
'I'm an easy target. It's easy to talk about El Hadji Diouf and I let them talk, but deep down I know I'm a good guy. My family knows it, my population knows it, my continent knows that I am a good guy and that is the best. The rest is not my problem.'
In this sense, one cannot argue with Diouf. He is loved in his homeland and even inspired the next generation of Senegalese footballers, including former Liverpool star Sadio Mane, who would win the nation's first AFCON crown.