Ali Dia became the most infamous signing in Premier League history – but he could have ended up at Upton Park
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ali Dia’s move to Southampton remains possibly the most infamous in Premier League history – Harry Redknapp has told FFT that he too was offered the forward, during his time as West Ham United boss.
Dia was recruited by Graeme Souness at Southampton in 1996 after a phone call from a man claiming to be George Weah, saying the player was his cousin and recommending him.
The 31-year-old made one appearance for the club, as a first-half substitute for the injured Matt Le Tissier at home to Leeds United, but didn’t prove an adequate replacement for the club legend, and was subbed himself in the second half.
Ali Dia
“He ran around the pitch like Bambi on ice, it was very embarrassing to watch,” Le Tissier later said.
Speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo, former West Ham manager Redknapp outlined that it wasn’t uncommon to receive phone calls with recommendations for players during his long managerial career.
Redknapp chose not to sign Dia (Image credit: Alamy)
“Agents would always be ringing you, but you had to have your own knowledge of players,” he said. “If they rang up, often you’d say, ‘No, I’m not interested in him’. You had to make your own judgement on who you fancied and who you didn’t.”
Redknapp explained that he received a similar call about Dia, and insisted it was Weah who called him.
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“He rang me at the training ground – it was George Weah,” he said. “He rang up and said, ‘My cousin, good player, I’ve seen your team, you’re a good team but you need a goalscorer’. I was saying, ‘Oh yeah, OK George, lovely’. I thought it was a wind-up.
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“I was going, ‘Yeah alright, George, how are you doing at Milan now?’ I thought it was someone having a laugh. Then suddenly he started telling me how Milan were going to play that year and the players he was playing with. I thought, ‘Oh my God, it is him!’ I was shocked.
“But, luckily, I didn’t take his cousin. He ended up going to Southampton, didn’t he, coming on after 20 minutes, then getting dragged off after 20 minutes…”
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from 20 countries, in places as varied as Jerusalem and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, Euro 2020 and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
