THE PREMIER LEAGUES MOST INFAMOUS FOOTBALL DEBUT
Ali Dia
Ali Dia was born in Senegal back in 1965. In 1988 he made his professional debut with lower league French side Beauvais F.C. Ali a Striker by trade then spent the next eight years bouncing around the lower football leagues of France and Germany. His English football career started at Gillingham then Bournemouth F.C unfortunately for Ali Dia this was in both cases a failed trial. His official English debut came in 1996 playing for Blyth Spartans against Boston United in a Northern Premier League clash. After only one substitute appearance for Blyth Spartans Ali Dia made a somewhat shock move to Southampton United.
THE CALL
In November 1996 the current Southampton manager Graeme Souness received a somewhat out of the blue phone call from George Weah. The former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah was calling to make Souness aware of his cousin. Wear went on to tell Souness that his cousin Ali Dia had 13 caps for Senegal and had played at Paris Saint-Germain. Now had it not been for Southampton’s injury issues at the time I’m pretty sure nothing would have come from the call. Unfortunately for Souness he had limited options and with such a legend of the game backing this guy he signed him up the next day on a 1 month contract.
THE DEBUT
On November 23rd 1996 Dia would make his English Premiership debut for Southampton United against Leeds United. After 32 minutes of the game Matt Le Tissier was subbed due to injury and on stepped Ali Dia wearing the number 33 jersey. The debut didn’t kick off to a good start with Ali missing a goal scoring chance with his first kick of the game. The shouts coming from his own bench were “What’s this geezer doing? He’s hopeless.” Things didn’t get much better for the Senegalese national culminating in him getting subbed back off in the 85th minute. It was pretty clear to all at the club and those watching the game that this guy was not the real deal. Post-match Le Tissier was quoted in saying “He ran around like Bambi on ice.” We could only imagine the atmosphere in the changing room after and the subsequent meeting with Souness the following day.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE DEAL
After the fiasco of Ali Dia’s debut game for Southampton and after a few follow up calls to people in the know, it was discovered Dia’s story was a lie. Weah had no knowledge of the call or even who Ali Dia was. As it was uncovered a College friend of Dia’s had called Souness claiming to be Weah and Souness in his time of need had taken the bait and signed him up. In the end bar a few blushes on Souness and Southamptons side, no harm was done and Ali Dia was sent on his way. The moral of the story is there is a chance of a Premier League debut for all of us if you try hard enough.