In 1996 there were no YouTube compilations.
There was no WyScout, TransferMarkt or even much of an internet, meaning that the conditions
were ripe for one of the greatest deceptions the Premier League has ever known.
This is the story of its worst ever player.
It was the 1996-97 season and Southampton were waging their annual battle against relegation.
They were under the new management of Graeme Souness and after an awful start, with the
team taking just two points from seven league games, they’d just enjoyed an unlikely late-Autumn
bounce, winning three of five games to shoot up the table.
Reality was just around the corner, though.
Souness’ side would take a 7-1 thumping at Goodison Park to Everton, before in a match
against Leeds the next week, they’d create an anecdote for the ages and make themselves
a punchline.
Enter Ali Dia.
In the 1990s, there was no more respected name than AC Milan’s George Weah.
Today, Weah is the President of Liberia, but in 1996 he was the reigning European and World
Player of the year and had the game at his feet.
What he didn’t have, however, was a cousin playing non-league for Blyth Spartans.
The story is fairly well-known.
A man claiming to be Weah phoned Souness, recommending that he sign his cousin, the
unknown Dia.
What’s less understood, though, are the circumstances that led to him actually playing
in the Premier League or how many other clubs might have fallen victim of his hoax.
Dia actually had a trial at Coventry City, but was let go quickly after a less than impressive
showing in training.
He also played in a friendly for Port Vale and was given a trial by Gillingham.
He didn’t impress then Gills manager Tony Pulis, though, who released him because he
was – quote, unquote – “rubbish”.
Harry Redknapp also received calls about him when he was managing West Ham, but smelt the
deception and declined the offer.
Souness’ Southampton, meanwhile, were either considerably more naïve or much more desperate.
They had two available forwards at the time, Matthew Le Tissier and Egil Ostenstad, and
Dia – who the mysterious “George Weah” claimed had played with him at former club
Paris Saint-Germain and also for Serie A side Bologna - was given a month-long contract.
Reports in the British media also claimed that he had played – and scored – for
the the Senegalese national side.
None of that was actually true and yet he signed a contract worth several thousand pounds
at The Dell and, within a week, he would make a matchday squad.
Not that the Southampton players were blind.
Those who trained with Dia observed that he wasn’t too bad in small-sided games, but
stood out badly during other drills.
Some interviewed in the years after admitted to thinking – genuinely - that he’d won
a competition to train with them.
And Dia would have a big stroke of luck.
He was scheduled to take part in a reserve game in the midweek ahead of the Leeds United
match and had the game gone ahead and had his clumsy touch been exposed, that would
surely have been the end of the road.
As it was, the match was postponed because of bad weather and, after just one training
session, he found himself in Southampton first-team squad for the weekend.
And he would come on.
Dia’s talent may not have been real, but Southampton’s striker shortage very much
was, and so when Matthew Le Tissier pulled his groin, Souness was left with little choice
but to send on his new no.33, who definitely had not played for PSG, Bologna, the Senegalese
national team or any other team of professional note.
Dia would actually have a shot on goal, which was saved at the near-post by former England
goalkeeper Nigel Martyn, but his performance was shambolic and that he didn’t belong
was clear.
To some, it seemed like he was doing whatever he could to avoid the ball, running to wherever
it wasn’t and – on 85 minutes – having spent just 53 on the pitch, he suffered the
ignominy of becoming a substitute who was substituted, being replaced by defender Ken
Monkou.
Leeds, leading 1-0 at the time, would score a second to make the game safe, and Souness
was left explaining Dia’s performance to the media after the game.
“It just goes to show the state of things at the club at the moment that a player I
have never even seen, let alone watched playing in a game, was able to play in the Premiership”
he reflected.
Very true – and by the time the hoax was exposed, by British tabloid The Daily Mirror
later in the month, Dia was long gone.
In fact, Le Tissier doesn’t recall seeing him again after the Leeds game.
“The mood was pretty sombre in the dressing-room afterwards, so we didn’t really discuss
him then” he told The Guardian.
“Apparently he came in for treatment on the Sunday morning, according to the physio.
He was told to report again on Monday, and he just did a runner.”
Dia’s dalliance with football wasn’t quite done.
He would sign for non-league Gateshead in the North East of England, even scoring a
couple of goals and earning a few hundred pounds a week.
Supporters, who seemed to be in on the joke, even serenaded him with his own chant.
“Ali Dia, is a liar, is a liar…” they sang, for the eight games he lasted.
But what came next is more of a mystery.
FourFourTwo Magazine managed to very briefly contact him some years ago, and also found
out that he graduated from Northumbria University with a degree in Business Studies in 2001,
but Dia himself was reluctant to speak and none of the organisation who had come into
contact with him, either inside the game or out, were able to provide any details.
So, nobody really knows what happened to Ali Dia, but nobody will ever forget his name
either.