Diouf is putting Rovers on the map
El Hadji Diouf has taken over the number ten shirt vacated by Billy Sharp after signing an extended deal with Rovers. Picture: Steve Uttley
EL Hadji Diouf finally extended his stay at the Keepmoat Stadium last week - and then revealed how is relishing putting Doncaster Rovers on the football map.
The 31-year-old forward put pen to paper on a deal until the end of the season, with an option to then stay a further 12 months.
Whether Diouf stays beyond the end of the current campaign will depend on which division Doncaster find themselves in next season.
But the Senegalese star says he and the club are only looking in one direction - and in the process they are turning a few heads across the globe.
Diouf said: “Everywhere I go, people are talking about Doncaster Rovers.
“In Paris I met some English people and they wanted to talk about Doncaster Rovers.
“I went to Dubai for a week and everybody was talking about Doncaster Rovers.
“The chairman went to South Africa recently and people were talking about the club over there too.
“Like Willie McKay said, if you ask someone who does not really know football for the name of a Sheffield United player, they do not know one.
“It’s the same for Sheffield Wednesday, no one knows one.
“But ask them for Doncaster, and everyone knows one.
“Over the next three years we could make the Premier League,” he added. “Why not?
“Where Doncaster Rovers are now, that’s where Stoke City used to be.
“We are starting to build something here.
“The club has lots of ambition, and I love the ambition and I love the challenge.
“It’s also good for my family that I am staying at Doncaster.
“My kids have started to go to school in Manchester so it’s good for them and it’s good for me.”
Boss Dean Saunders said: “The way everybody has taken to him here, I think he’s happy.
“He’s signed a modest contract, a lot less than some of the players who are already here.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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