As you may have seen, West Ham have completed the signing of El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague for a fee of £19m. However, you may be asking “Who?” – which is why I’m here today. I’ve been watching this player develop ever since I first spotted him playing for Tromsø in Norway’s Eliteserien, and always felt like he had the potential to make a transfer like this. Time to learn some more about West Ham’s new signing.

Diouf is a native of Dakar, Senegal, where he first played at the Galaxy Football Academy, followed by the Académie Mawade Wade (both Senegalese academies). After impressing scouts enough to earn a trial, Diouf performed so well at his trial that he was signed to Eliteserien club Tromsø in February of 2023, shortly after turning 18 years old. He took some time to acclimate, (understandable given that Tromsø is the northernmost top-flight football club in the world), but finished the season with 21 appearances for the club, and became an important player at Left Wing-Back.

This was enough for Slavia Prague to take a chance on Malick Diouf, who moved to the Czech capital in January of 2024. With limited game time in the league for the remainder of the 23/24 season, he performed well for Slavia, after spending some time playing for their reserve team. This season also gave him his first experience in European play, in the Europa League. 2024 also saw Diouf receive his first caps for the Senegalese senior team.

He would take a big step forward in the 24/25 season with Slavia, contributing 7 goals and 3 assists while playing an overall strong game. His performances in the Europa League also improved, with Diouf being one of Slavia’s best players in the competition. His season would result in the reward of starting at LB in Senegal’s 3-1 win over England at Wembley in June. This match might have been what put him on West Ham’s radar, although the Hammers do have somewhat of a history of scouting the Czech league – you might remember longtime players Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal. A month after his strong performance at Wembley, El Hadji Malick Diouf is a West Ham player.

In terms of the type of player he is, Diouf profiles as an attacking fullback, and can play as a winger in midfield as well. Since he is coming from the Czech league, which is a top 15 league in Europe but of a significantly lower standard than the Premier League, his stats from the Czech league will likely not translate directly to the Premier League. However, using his Europa League stats (the highest level competition he has played in) from the past season, Diouf is one of the best attacking fullbacks in the competition. He ranked in the 95th percentile or higher in non-penalty xG, shots, xA, shot creating actions, progressive passes, and progressive passes received. See FBRef’s player profile below:

Now, Diouf only played 600 minutes in the Europa League this season, which is just over 6.5 full 90’s. I believe this is enough of a sample size at a high level of competition to show that his performance was not a fluke. A very physically gifted, attacking-minded full-back, Diouf is already playing at a high level and at only 20 years old, has plenty of time to improve even further.

I believe this will turn out to be a great signing for West Ham, and they could well be selling Diouf to another Premier League team for significant profit in a few years. I am very excited to see how Diouf’s game translates to the Premier League, especially as another player to come through the Eliteserien on their way to Europe’s top leagues. Yet another reason to keep an eye on Scandinavian football, plenty of future stars are making a name for themselves.

I’ll leave you with the words of his now former manager, Jindrich Trpisovsky, in regards to Malick Diouf moving to London: “I had it in my head that he wouldn’t be here. I was already resigned to it. It was a matter of days. The club’s management did a great job. Slavia got what they wanted.” His manager at Slavia clearly saw the same things I did in Diouf as a player, continuing on to say: “No one knows exactly what Malick is still capable of achieving … I’ll miss him as a football player, but above all as a person. The boy is extraordinary and will be even better. His potential is brutal.”

El Hadji Malick Diouf, certainly One to Watch.

-LM