Ali Dia, Graeme Souness, and the call nobody can trace

Someone called Southampton in November 1996. Who made that call has never been established. What the caller claimed was this: Ali Dia was George Weah's cousin, had played for Paris Saint-Germain alongside him, and had earned 13 caps for Senegal. Every one of those claims was false. The real George Weah had no knowledge of Dia.

Graeme Souness, Southampton's manager, later described what he was told: 'Someone got a call at the football club... George Weah's cousin or nephew was in England and looking to join a club.' Southampton gave Dia a one-month contract and the number 33 shirt.

What Dia actually was: a 31-year-old who had moved through the lower reaches of French, Finnish and German football — Beauvais, Dijon, La Rochelle, Saint-Quentin, Chateaubriant, FinnPa, PK-35, VfB Lübeck. At Lübeck he made two substitute appearances. Two weeks before the Leeds match, on 9 November 1996, he had played once for non-league Blyth Spartans.

Souness is direct about what happened at the training ground. 'Within the first five minutes on a Monday morning, we said he wasn't for us. He was hopeless.' He goes further: 'The story goes that we were kidded and conned by people, but that's not true. We made the decision on him within the first five minutes.'

Matt Le Tissier had a different vantage point. 'I actually thought he'd won a competition to come and train with us.'

So why did Dia end up on the pitch? Souness's explanation is straightforward: 'We were playing Leeds United on the Saturday, and Matt was our only fit forward.'

The match was 23 November 1996 — a home Premier League fixture at The Dell against Leeds United. Le Tissier pulled a thigh muscle and came off in the 32nd minute. Dia replaced him. Early in his time on the pitch he had one shot, saved by Leeds goalkeeper Nigel Martyn. Then, on 85 minutes, with Southampton already losing, Dia was substituted off and replaced by defender Ken Monkou. He had been on the pitch for 53 minutes. Leeds won 2-0, Gary Kelly scoring on 82 and Lee Sharpe on 89.

Le Tissier, the man Dia had replaced, was blunt about it afterwards. 'He ran around the pitch like Bambi on ice; it was very embarrassing to watch.' On being the player substituted to bring Dia on, Le Tissier was equally blunt: 'I was the player that was substituted for possibly the worst player ever to play in the Premier League.'

Southampton released Dia after 14 days — roughly a fortnight into the one-month deal. He never played for the club's first team again and never appeared in the Premier League again.

In December 1996 he joined Gateshead in the Conference and scored on his debut in a 5-0 win over Bath City, finishing with two goals in a handful of games. He was transfer-listed in February 1997 and later had a brief spell at Spennymoor United.

Dia has stayed almost entirely out of public view. It is reported that he later took a business degree and an MBA and worked in business, but that has not been confirmed.

Souness's position has not shifted. He was not conned by a phone call. He knew within five minutes that Dia could not play. He picked him anyway because Le Tissier got injured and there was nobody else.