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[Football] 25 years ago - Ali Dia Day.



Pinkie Brown

Pinkie Brown

I'll look after the skirt
Sep 5, 2007
3,542
Neues Zeitalter DDR
Today marks the silver anniversary of the greatest blag in Premier League history, the cameo debut for Southampton of the legend, Ali Dia. A player who claimed to be George Weah's cousin, despite coming from Senegal, a country 2000 miles away from Weah's home country of Liberia. 'George Weah' had phoned around many clubs in an attempt to get his 'cousin' a trial. Most saw through the con. Graeme Souness didn't and brought him on as a sub for the injured Matt Le Tissier against Leeds despite having never seen him play. Dia was so hopeless, he was subbed off again 53 minutes later.

Dia claimed to have previously played with George Weah at PSG plus played in Bundesliga 2 the previous season. Weah, the Senegal FA and PSG had never heard of him. Dia's previous playing time had been one game for Blyth Spartans in the Northern Premier League. To Souness' eternal embarrassment, the story never gets old. He persistently claims to anyone who will listen to him, he wasn't conned. Nobody believes him. Given today's date, Souness has probably turned his phone off and hiding under the covers.

Also of note, a young midfielder by the name of Graham Potter played for Southampton that day. He didn't make many PL appearances, but he played in one of the most remembered and famous thanks to the hero blagger that was Ali Dia.


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Nobby Cybergoat

Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
6,968
The odd thing about this story is why Souness put him on instead of one of the other subs (or why he even made the bench in the first place). Why wouldn't you put on someone you had at least seen play in training

Conning your way into a club, is probably not that hard with some celebrity name dropping. Getting on the pitch is the part which seems peculiar. Makes me think there's more about this story which never came out.
 




Swansman

Swansman

Pro-peace
May 13, 2019
22,320
Sweden
Nobby Cybergoat said:
The odd thing about this story is why Souness put him on instead of one of the other subs (or why he even made the bench in the first place). Why wouldn't you put on someone you had at least seen play in training

Conning your way into a club, is probably not that hard with some celebrity name dropping. Getting on the pitch is the part which seems peculiar. Makes me think there's more about this story which never came out.
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Well they really didnt have any other attacking players available so I can understand that part of it.
 




Commander

Commander

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
12,890
London
Nobby Cybergoat said:
The odd thing about this story is why Souness put him on instead of one of the other subs (or why he even made the bench in the first place). Why wouldn't you put on someone you had at least seen play in training

Conning your way into a club, is probably not that hard with some celebrity name dropping. Getting on the pitch is the part which seems peculiar. Makes me think there's more about this story which never came out.
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Apparently he had seen him pay in training. Le Tiss did an interview talking about it not long ago. He said he looked awful in training too.
 




Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

Waxing chumps like candles since ‘75
Oct 4, 2003
11,056
Nobby Cybergoat said:
The odd thing about this story is why Souness put him on instead of one of the other subs (or why he even made the bench in the first place). Why wouldn't you put on someone you had at least seen play in training

Conning your way into a club, is probably not that hard with some celebrity name dropping. Getting on the pitch is the part which seems peculiar. Makes me think there's more about this story which never came out.
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Souness had certainly watched him in training but as he had looked out of his depth why he was given a contract does raise many questions. They had a bit of an injury crisis especially to forwards so were desperate so it possibly goes some way to explain why they took the risk, however most Southampton players seemed surprised he made the match day squad, let alone got on the pitch when Le Tiss got injured. I certainly agree there seems to be a bit more to this than meets the eye which has never been divulged.
 


Comrade Sam

Comrade Sam

Comrade Sam
Jan 31, 2013
1,578
Walthamstow
Posted this before, but again seems applicable. Watch 'The Kaiser, the greatest footballer never to play'. An awesome true story and has the whiff CKR.
 






Gabbafella

Gabbafella

Well-known member
Aug 22, 2012
4,683
I was talking about this to some of the younger lads at work the other week. They didn't believe me at all.
 


Badger

Badger

NOT the Honey Badger
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May 8, 2007
12,779
Toronto
Commander said:
Apparently he had seen him pay in training. Le Tiss did an interview talking about it not long ago. He said he looked awful in training too.
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That sounds like b****ks. Le Tiss bothering with training.
 






Not Andy Naylor

Not Andy Naylor

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
8,798
Seven Dials
A lot of wise-after-the-event rubbish is spoken about the Aly Dia incident, mostly by Matthew Le Tissier. I reported that Southampton v Leeds game, and although Dia was pretty poor, so were most of the Southampton players. He didn't really stick out as being that much worse than the rest of them.

Le Tissier has said things like 'he was everywhere the ball wasn't' and 'he seemed to be trying to stay out of the way of the ball' and that's complete nonsense. He had a decent first-time shot saved by the keeper, and footage shows him in the thick of the action, trying to put Leeds defenders under pressure. But it obviously suits Le Tissier's 'of course I knew all the time' narrative.
 


WATFORD zero

WATFORD zero

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Jul 10, 2003
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Not Andy Naylor said:
A lot of wise-after-the-event rubbish is spoken about the Aly Dia incident, mostly by Matthew Le Tissier. I reported that Southampton v Leeds game, and although Dia was pretty poor, so were most of the Southampton players. He didn't really stick out as being that much worse than the rest of them.

Le Tissier has said things like 'he was everywhere the ball wasn't' and 'he seemed to be trying to stay out of the way of the ball' and that's complete nonsense. He had a decent first-time shot saved by the keeper, and footage shows him in the thick of the action, trying to put Leeds defenders under pressure. But it obviously suits Le Tissier's 'of course I knew all the time' narrative.
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It's interesting you say that, because didn't remember it being 15 mins and subbed back off Sunday League :blush: type thing.

But it is a cracking story :thumbsup:
 


Not Andy Naylor

Not Andy Naylor

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Dec 12, 2007
8,798
Seven Dials
WATFORD zero said:
It's interesting you say that, because didn't remember it being 15 mins and subbed back off Sunday League :blush: type thing.

But it is a cracking story :thumbsup:
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He came on after 34 minutes and was taken off again 5 minutes from time. If he was as bad as was claimed, how come he stayed on for 51 minutes?
 


Pinkie Brown

Pinkie Brown

I'll look after the skirt
Sep 5, 2007
3,542
Neues Zeitalter DDR
Not Andy Naylor said:
A lot of wise-after-the-event rubbish is spoken about the Aly Dia incident, mostly by Matthew Le Tissier. I reported that Southampton v Leeds game, and although Dia was pretty poor, so were most of the Southampton players. He didn't really stick out as being that much worse than the rest of them.

Le Tissier has said things like 'he was everywhere the ball wasn't' and 'he seemed to be trying to stay out of the way of the ball' and that's complete nonsense. He had a decent first-time shot saved by the keeper, and footage shows him in the thick of the action, trying to put Leeds defenders under pressure. But it obviously suits Le Tissier's 'of course I knew all the time' narrative.
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Interesting what you say about Dia's performance that day. I have a friend who was a season ticket holder at the time and said broadly similar. Dia looked out of his depth and barely touched the ball after his shot, but the rest of the team were pretty poor that day too. Le Tissier rehashes the story verbatim on a regular basis, throwing in the gag about thinking Dia had won a competition to train with them and the rest. No doubt like many ex footballers stories, much is embellished for the after dinner speaking circuit.

What can't be disputed despite his consistent denials, Souness was the only manager who fell for the story, hook and line. 'George Weah' had phoned many clubs including Redknapp at West Ham and Tony Pulis who at the time was Gillingham manager. As Pulis later said; "I was suspicious that George Weah would have even heard of Gillingham." Souness is obviously still embarrassed and digs himself a bigger hole everytime he comments on the incident, contradicting what he said in interviews before and after Dia played at the time. He throws Terry Cooper under the bus, claiming it was his idea to have Dia on the bench as his only other options were defenders. Which is a lie as he had Australian international Robbie Slater on the bench that day. A wide midfielder who would have been an almost like-for-like swap. I knew Slater from his time coming through the youth team and into the firsts at Sydney St George in the then National League, so followed his career to an extent. Souness referred to Dia as a fool in an interview on Sky last year. Rich coming from him. Dia was the smart one who fooled Souness with an elaborate hoax. He also went on to gain a masters business degree at Newcastle University. Only one fool amongst those two.

The Bleacher Report ran a feature five years ago where they set out to find Dia. Even that had a touch of farce. They tasked their London correspondent with finding Dia. After traipsing around Senegal where she found Dia's parents and also France where she spoke to his son, the correspondent eventually made contact with Dia - in London! The interview consisted of a brief phone call where unsurprisingly, Dia's recollection of events were different to everyone else. He declined a full interview as he said he had moved on and didn't want to rehash the past which is understandable. No matter how much Souness wants it to go away, the Dia incident won't move on for him.
 




Swansman

Swansman

Pro-peace
May 13, 2019
22,320
Sweden
Not Andy Naylor said:
A lot of wise-after-the-event rubbish is spoken about the Aly Dia incident, mostly by Matthew Le Tissier. I reported that Southampton v Leeds game, and although Dia was pretty poor, so were most of the Southampton players. He didn't really stick out as being that much worse than the rest of them.

Le Tissier has said things like 'he was everywhere the ball wasn't' and 'he seemed to be trying to stay out of the way of the ball' and that's complete nonsense. He had a decent first-time shot saved by the keeper, and footage shows him in the thick of the action, trying to put Leeds defenders under pressure. But it obviously suits Le Tissier's 'of course I knew all the time' narrative.
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Yeah its probably ten years ago but I once found some compilation of all the ball touches he had in the game and while he was obviously not a PL level player it also wasnt as comically bad as some prefers to remember it.
 


Bry Nylon

Bry Nylon

Test your smoke alarm
Helpful Moderator
Jul 21, 2003
19,844
Playing snooker
Swansman said:
Yeah its probably ten years ago but I once found some compilation of all the ball touches he had in the game and while he was obviously not a PL level player it also wasnt as comically bad as some prefers to remember it.
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Yup. He can't have been that comically bad, otherwise we'd have signed him on a 3 year deal
 


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