How Ali Dia fooled Graeme Souness
LIAM NEWMAN remembers the day Graeme Souness fell foul of a trickster
Kids dream of being Premier League footballers, but lack of ability stops almost all of them. Not Ali Dia, though.
Back in November 1996, Southampton were in the middle of another difficult campaign, having registered just three wins from their opening 13 matches, and manager Graeme Souness was preparing his troops for the customary relegation battle ahead.
So when the club received a phone call from World Footballer of the Year George Weah recommending his cousin to the club, staff at The Dell were entusiastic.
Why not? Apparently, Ali Dia, was a Senegalese international who had scored twice for his country just two days previously. Furthermore the 6ft 4ins goal machine had played alongside cousin George at Paris Saint-Germain and had a glowing reference from the AC Milan idol to boot. Surely this was too good to be true? Yes, yes it was, but that didn’t stop Souey from moving quickly to snap the striker up in order to stave off the presumed fierce competition from a long line of clubs frantically chasing his signature.
It turned out that Weah had never heard of Dia and in fact the unknown caller had been Dia himself. Likewise, the man from Dakar hadn’t held a regular first team spot in France; nor had he represented his country.
The truth was that Ali Dia had come from English non-league outfit Blyth Spartans, where he’d been released for not being of the required standard.
Yet, somehow the cheeky chancer had miraculously pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes and bagged himself a one-month contract at a Premier League club.
Nowadays a stunt like this would stand zero chance of success as even a two-minute search of Google would have exposed the hoax.
However, this was before the likes of Arsene Wenger completely reshaped the scouting network and, somehow, Dia had snuck through the net.
And the madness didn’t stop there as, just 24 hours after his arrival, the ‘former PSG star’ found himself sitting on the Southampton bench for the Premier League visit of Leeds United.
Half an hour into the match, local hero Matt Le Tissier was forced off through injury and on went Dia.
And totally lived up to his name! The Saints’ new number 33 lasted less than 30 minutes before a red-faced Souness, having watched his ‘star’ stumble round like Bambi on ice, subbed the substitute. Southampton lost the game, along with their dignity. The following day, Dia made a swift exit. A brief stint at non-league Gateshead followed and the former Premier League forward even scored two goals during his eight match spell. Shortly afterwards it was time for fans to mourn the retirement of one the sport’s biggest hoaxers as Dia decided that the world wasn’t quite ready for a hero of his magnitude, opting to study business at University instead.
Ali Dia’s time in the spotlight was brief but his legend will forever remain in football folklore.
Southampton survived on the final day; I think we can safely say that was not thanks to the monumental impact of Ali Dia.