El Hadji Diouf takes broadside at ex-Liverpool team mate Steven Gerrard

There's little love lost between Steven Gerrard and El Hadji Diouf - their spats have become notorious, and go all the way back to when both were team mates at Liverpool. A few years ago, Diouf even accused Gerrard of being racist.

"I've got respect for Balotelli but not Diouf" says Gerrard

In his autobiography, Gerrard compared Diouf with Mario Balotelli: "I don’t really want to waste time thinking about El Hadji Diouf but it’s worth highlighting his wasted seasons at Liverpool as an example of how it can all go wrong. It seemed to me that Diouf had no real interest in football and that he cared nothing about Liverpool. For example, the way he spat a huge globule of gunky phlegm at a Celtic fan in a UEFA Cup match at Parkhead in March 2003 summed up his contemptuous and spiteful demeanour.A few people have since asked me if I saw any comparison between Diouf and Mario Balotelli - and I’ve always said no. I’ve got respect for Balotelli; I’ve got none for Diouf. The only positive aspect of the otherwise ugly signing of Diouf is that he worked hard on the pitch. He always wanted the ball, and he never hid; after a while I decided Diouf simply wasn’t your usual footballer. It seemed to me as if football got in the way of his social life".

Gerrard "never did anything for England" sneers Diouf

Diouf, who scored just three goals during two fallow seasons at Anfield, took another potshot at Gerrard and his old club in an interview with BBC Africa this weekend. "Gerrard is a strong character and I am a strong character. Stevie was a very good player, people like him in Liverpool buthe never did anything for his country. I am Mr El Hadji Diouf, Mr Senegal but he is Mr Liverpool and Senegal is bigger than Liverpool and he has to know that.We put Senegal on the world map; what Maradona did for Argentina is what I did for Senegal. I was one of the biggest men at the 2002 World Cup".