Ali Dia

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Ali Dia
Personnel
Surname Ali Dia
birthday August 20, 1965
place of birth Dakar ,  Senegal
size 180 cm
position Storm
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1988-1989 AS Beauvais 1 (0)
1988-1989 AS Beauvais B 19 (3)
1989-1990 Cercle Dijon 3 (0)
1989-1990 Cercle Dijon B. 17 (3)
1990-1991 ES La Rochelle 1 (0)
1991-1992 Olympique Saint-Quentin 6 (1)
1995 Finnairin Palloilijat 5 (0)
1995 Pallokerho-35 3 (1)
1995-1996 VfB Lübeck 2 (0)
1996 Blyth Spartans 1 (0)
1996 Southampton FC 1 (0)
1996-1997 Gateshead FC 8 (2)
1 Only league games are given.

Ali Dia (actually Aly Dia ; born August 20, 1965 in Dakar ) is a former Senegalese football player . The amateur player became known for having played for Southampton FC in the English Premier League after he had previously falsely claimed to have been a national player in his home country .

Athletic career

Dia played in various lower-class teams in France and Finland and for a few months in the 2nd Bundesliga in Germany at VfB Lübeck . He had already failed trial sessions at Port Vale , Gillingham FC and Bournemouth AFC before joining English semi-professional club Blyth Spartans in 1996 . In the same year, Graeme Souness, as coach of Southampton FC, received a call from someone who posed as former FIFA world player and Liberian international George Weah . This “Weah” recommended Souness to his cousin, who allegedly played for Paris Saint-Germain and made 13 international matches for his country. All of these statements later turned out to be untrue. Souness signed Dia for an initial month.

The newcomer only came to a single game for Southampton FC when he came on on 23 November 1996 against Leeds United on 32 minutes for Matthew Le Tissier . Previously, a slide had been planned for the reserve team of Southampton FC; However, the friendly game against the Arsenal substitute had been canceled due to the unplayable pitch. The performance of Dias against Leeds was spectacularly below average and the lack of level of play compared to the standard in English top division football was immediately apparent. After 53 minutes of play, Souness ended this experiment and swapped Dia again for Ken Monkou - Leeds United won 2-0 in the end. The club management released Dia from his contract prematurely. Later Dia would appear sporadically for the lower class FC Gateshead.

Dia as a "cult figure"

The name Ali Dia has an almost legendary ring among fans of English football. Although he only played once for the club, a song from Southampton fans is dedicated to him: Ali Di-a, he's a li-ar, he's a li-ar (“Ali Dia, he's a liar, he is a liar ”). Dia appears again and again when listing particularly bad footballers or transfers. In a Times poll , he topped the list of the “50 worst footballers”.

The myth about Ali Dia was reinforced by the fact that both his origin and whereabouts had remained unknown for many years after his last documented position as a footballer. Various journalists regularly failed to find more information about Dia's life or any signs of life from him. This apparently mysterious disappearance led to numerous speculations, for example that he now has a different name, has emigrated to Saudi Arabia or has already died. It wasn't until 2016, on the 20th anniversary of his Premier League engagement, that a journalist (Kelly Naqi from the Bleacher Report ) managed to get in touch with Dia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The 10 worst foreign signings of all time" (The Observer)
  2. ^ "Premiership's Top 10 Foreign Flops" ( Memento from June 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (whoateallthepies.tv)
  3. ↑ "The 50 worst footballers" (The Times)
personal data
SURNAME Dia, Ali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dia, Aly
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Senegalese soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Dakar , Senegal