Diouf joins West Ham for €22 million, largest fee ever for Czech league player
Slavia Prague’s star left back, El Hadji Malick Diouf, is on the verge of completing a move to the Premier League. The club confirmed the €22 million deal with West Ham United, making Diouf the most expensive outgoing transfer in Czech league history.
On Sunday afternoon, El Hadji Malick Diouf featured shortly in Slavia’s pre-season friendly against Dynamo Dresden - his last game for the club. The Czech league champion’s sporting director Jiří Bílek confirmed an agreement with West Ham United. The Senegalese international is set to travel to London for a medical, ahead of the lucrative move.
According to football journalist Fabrizio Romano, West Ham will pay €22 million, plus conditional add-ons, making it the largest transfer fee ever received by a Czech club. In December, Radio Prague International spoke to Diouf in an exclusive interview, where he touched on potentially breaking the Czech league transfer record:
“I saw excerpts talking about a record transfer. As far as I am concerned, it’s great for the club financially. In any case it’s nice to be cited among the legends who have played in this league,” the 20-year-old full back said.
The previous record move was only sealed earlier this year, when Diouf’s then-teammate at Slavia, goalkeeper Antonín Kinský, joined West Ham’s city rivals Tottenham Hotspur for €16.5 million. A well-deserved move according to the young Senegalese:
“When I see him play, I think to myself: ‘This goalkeeper doesn’t feel pressure’. He plays calm, has good technique, can play with his feet… he’s very cool. He’s got a big future ahead of him,” he says.
The left-back himself only joined Slavia in January last year from Norwegian club Tromsø. The Czech outfit only paid €2.50 million at the time, but had to fend of strong competition:
“There were many clubs interested, but the project of Slavia was the best for me. My uncle also helped with this decision. For me to progress I needed to play a lot, and that’s why we decided that the ideal club for me, at that point in time, was Slavia Prague,” Diouf recounts.
Last season, the transfer record-holder featured in all of the club’s 12 European outings, and played 24 league games, in which he scored 7 goals and assisted 3. With his stellar performance, he contributed to Slavia’s dominant Czech title victory, and also had a word of praise to spare for manager Jindřich Trpišovský:
“With him you can see, that he has that winning culture. He always wants to win. Whenever you talk to him, winning is the only thing that matters. The staff is great, it’s a good atmosphere,” he lauds.
Diouf seems to have adopted that winning formula, earning him a transfer to one of Europe’s top 5 competitions – the Premier League. The talented defender admits to have had his sights set on England’s top flight since young, especially as many of Senegal’s star players, some now his national teammates, have walked this path before:
“I have always followed the English championship a lot. I supported Mané, when he was at Liverpool. We talk quite often, he’s great. He gives us a lot of advice, and helps us both on and off the pitch. He’s an example for all young Senegalese who want to become like him. So he certainly is a role-model,” Diouf says.
At West Ham United, the young Senegalese will link up with another former Slavia record departure, four-time Czech footballer of the year Tomáš Souček. The midfielder, who is also Czechia’s national team captain, is the only remaining Czech player at the London club after right back Vladimír Coufal’s contract expired this summer.
A strong Czech influence nonetheless remains at West Ham, with nine players having worn the famous claret and blue throughout its history. Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský also holds a 27% stake at the club, in addition to presiding over Slavia Prague’s city rivals Sparta.
