El-Hadji Diouf signs for Doncaster Rovers

Senegal international striker El-Hadji Diouf has joined Doncaster Rovers on a three-month deal, subject to clearance.

The 30-year-old, who was released by Blackburn in the summer, has joined the Championship club after talks with boss Dean Saunders.

The two-time African Footballer of the Year previously played for Liverpool, Bolton, Sunderland and Rangers.
DIOUF CONTROVERSIES
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* November 2002: Accused of spitting at West Ham fans while at Liverpool
* September 2003: Fined £5,000 and pleads guilty to spitting at Celtic fans at a Uefa Cup quarter-final the previous March
* November 2004: Charged with spitting at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan while on loan at Bolton
* November 2004: Fined two weeks' wages and banned for three games for spitting at Portsmouth's Arjan de Zeeuw
* September 2009: Questioned by police over allegations he racially abused a ball-boy at Everton
* January 2011: Accused of taunting QPR's Jamie Mackie while he lay injured during their FA Cup clash with Blackburn
* March 2011: Sent off in Rangers' derby match with Celtic after an altercation with Neil Lennon and showing dissent towards the referee.
* July 2011: Fails to report for Blackburn's pre-season tour to Austria

Diouf told BBC Radio Sheffield: "I'm going to do everything I can to help the team be successful."

Rovers are joint bottom of the Championship table with only nine points from 14 games.

"I love challenges. I went to Bolton and Rangers when people would not have expected me to do so," added Diouf, who said he had been training with both Wigan Athletic and West Ham United.

"One of my best friends in football is Pascal Chimbonda and he is here and I know a lot of the other players.

"It is not about money. If I wanted that then I could have gone to Russia or maybe the middle east but I don't want to do that yet. I am only 30 and I have at least three years left at the Championship or Premier League level."

Diouf has scored 21 international goals in 69 appearances and will help cover Doncaster's current shortage of strikers.

James Hayter was the only recognised centre-forward in the squad for Saturday's 1-1 draw with Coventry.

Billy Sharp missed the game due to a family problem, Chris Brown is only just returning from a knee injury and Jon Parkin has returned to Cardiff following his loan at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Diouf is the latest high-profile player to join Rovers.

Former England goalkeeper Chris Kirkland signed on-loan from Wigan earlier in October - but only lasted a week after getting injured.

They also signed ex-Tottenham and Blackburn defender Chimbonda in September and have taken Herita Ilunga on a three-month loan deal from West Ham.

Saunders has defended the club's transfer strategy and insists he is unfazed by Diouf's reputation.
Analysis
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Piers Edwards,
BBC African football correspondent

You can look at the move in two ways. Firstly, how the mighty have fallen after a man listed as one of Pele's best 125 footballers ever drops into English football's second tier at the age of 30. The other is respect for the fact that Diouf so loves playing that he's prepared to move to struggling Doncaster to continue taking to the field. Ageing he may be - but his class should still tell

He said: "I'm really pleased to have got him. He is a top player and he has brought into what I am trying to do here.

"He is prepared to come here and work and that's what I want.

"If anyone comes in with the wrong attitude then they won't be at this club for long.

"He's got a reputation, you can't deny that but I've got to manage him, that's my job. No one is bigger than the club.

"I think he feels hard done by. He is a Premier League player and he is coming here to rebuild himself."

Diouf, who has courted controversy throughout his career in England, joined Liverpool from Lens for £10m in 2002.

He moved to Bolton in 2005, making 88 appearances at the Reebok Stadium, before switching to Sunderland in 2008.

Diouf then joined Blackburn under Sam Allardyce's management in 2009 before finishing last season on loan at Rangers.

He picked up a league title winner's medal while in Scotland but upset a lot of Celtic fans along the way, most notably when he was sent off after the final whistle in Rangers' Scottish Cup defeat at Parkhead in March.

Diouf had been on trial with Allardyce's West Ham earlier this month but the Hammers boss decided not to offer the Senegalese a short-term deal because of his lack of fitness and opposition amongst the club's fans to a move.

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