Diouf: Liverpool stars don’t like Gerrard

LONDON: El-Hadji Diouf (pic) has launched a blistering attack on Steven-Gerrard– labelling the Liverpool skipper “egotistical” and claiming he is not liked within the squad.

The Leeds forward played at Anfield for two seasons following a £10mil move from Lens in the summer of 2002.

Gerrard criticised the Senegal international in his 2007 autobiography, commenting that the 31year-old was selfish and “his attitude was all wrong”.

But in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe, Diouf hit back at the England skipper with an astonishing verbal volley.

He said: “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.

“I was in Pele’s 100 players of the century. Not him. I respect him as a footballer, but there is nobody more egotistical than him.

“He does not care about others. I spoke to the major figures at Liverpool and nobody can stand him. And I am not talking about Jamie Carragher.”

Diouf has had a controversial career since moving to England following the World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

He was embroiled in a series of spitting controversies during his time at Liverpool and Bolton, while his stay with Blackburn saw him accused of taunting Jamie Mackie as the QPR forward lay on the ground with a broken leg.

The latter incident saw then QPR boss Neil Warnock, now Diouf’s manager at Elland Road, compare the player to a sewer rat.

But Diouf added: “I have done things but others have done worse. I am an easy target, people talk about me no matter what.

“Okay, I have hurt people and I regret that. But I have never been to prison, I have never injured anyone on the pitch.

“After people gave me the ’ badboy’ image, I had to deal with it. Bad boy? It makes me laugh.

“It doesn’t bother me. I prefer that people talk about me, whether good or bad. I leave my mark wherever I go.” — The Sun, London