Jamie Carragher Named Worst Player he Played With at Liverpool

When Liverpool signed El Hadji Diouf from Lens in 2002 for a reported £10 million, hopes were high. Fresh off his heroics for Senegal in the 2002 World Cup, Diouf was brought in by Gerard Houllier to help Liverpool challenge Arsenal’s dominance in the Premier League.

However, few could have foreseen how disappointing his Anfield stint would turn out. Scoring just six goals in 79 appearances, Diouf left in 2005, leaving behind more controversy than success, with his tenure coinciding with the Reds’ wilderness years. His time at Liverpool was only further marred by high-profile clashes with teammates Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, with the latter famously dubbing him his “worst ever teammate.”

The Bootle-born defender, who played 737 games for Liverpool in a career that spanned 1996 to 2013, has been highly critical of Diouf in various interviews since those turbulent days together. As someone who was in the thick of it during Liverpool’s highest and lowest moments, Carragher would have seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between, but he had no hesitation in saying his former Senegalese colleague was the worst of the lot.

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The Inside Story of Carragher’s Feud with Diouf

It’s a neverending tale of animosity and bad blood

During the 2003/04 season, El Hadji Diouf failed to score in 33 appearances across all competitions before moving to Bolton Wanderers, where he enjoyed greater success. His career remained controversial, marred by several incidents, including several alleged spitting incidents with players and spectators, before he retired in 2015 after a stint in Malaysia.

Since retiring, Diouf has engaged in a back-and-forth with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, with their feud spilling into interviews and social media. Carragher notably called out his former teammate on Twitter, reigniting their war of words. Carragher is quoted as saying:

The feud escalated in 2015 when Carragher was asked to name the worst footballer he had ever played alongside. He replied: “The worst has to be El Hadji Diouf. Actually, I quite enjoyed playing against him as you could kick him then, can’t kick your own players.”

Unsurprisingly, this didn’t sit well with Diouf, who had shared the pitch with Carragher 53 times for Liverpool between 2002 and 2004. Diouf fired back during an interview with ‘So Foot’ magazine in France, as per the Daily Star, addressing Carragher’s comments by saying:

Steven Gerrard Also Had Trouble With Diouf

It’s fair to judge that the Senegalese man isn’t liked on Merseyside

Diouf had a worrying knack for gaining himself one too many enemies. Steven Gerrard, considered up there as the very best and most loved Liverpool players of all time, wrote in his 2007 autobiography: “I wasn’t Diouf’s number one fan.

Just one look at the former Senegalese international’s response to that criticism is enough for him to gain even more haters. “What he said is only of interest to him. All I worried about was the Senegal team, I took them to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002,” he responded.

Clearly, Diouf’s bizarre confidence didn’t end up getting him anywhere far. While the two colleagues he started an inferno with went on to win the Champions League in 2005, he went on to play for each of Bolton, Sunderland, Blackburn, Rangers, Doncaster and Leeds United.