El-Hadji Diouf is bigger than the President…

El Hadji Diouf is very entertaining; We knew that. That’s pretty much all the guy has left, that and the memories of a time when his name and playing skills actually meant something. It’s completely baffling to see that this once great player – that showed even greater promise – celebrated his 28th birthday this January 15th and when he should have been at the top of his game right now, he’s just another kid who peaked in high school.
But if there’s one thing you can count on is that Diouf, who transferred this summer from Bolton to Sunderland for four years, and who is still a man amongst men in our native Senegal, it is that he will keep putting his foot in his mouth.
In an interview relayed by website Goal.com, Diouf went on to say that he and the National Team that played in the 2002 World Cup made Senegal more relevant than any politician did up until that point:

“I am more popular than some presidents of Senegal because of what we did at the 2002 World Cup. Before that World Cup not many people had heard about Senegal but after what we achieved at that tournament the whole world got to know about my country.”

It is true that THAT World Cup gave us relevance but the hard truth is that the 2002 World Cup campaign hurt Senegalese football much more than it helped. We went further than any African team ever did and could have gone even further off the strength of an exceptional generation. And while that filled us with pride at the time, it now seems like an Al Bundy story. We were great six years ago. And since then the furthest we’ve gone was the semi-finals of the 2006 African cup of nations. Even worse we didn’t even qualify for the next ACN in Angola nor for the next World Cup in South Africa.
These two years will help us cleanse the system and make sure the next generations takes over for 2012.

As for El hadji Diouf, he’s happy at Sunderland even though he’s not playing a whole lot and still believes he’s playing the best football of his life. At least the man kept his confidence.