The six years that Mor Diouf spent playing in South Africa elevated him to a life of comforts that left him with a sense of cover back home in Senegal.
Diouf was signed by Maritzburg United from Senegalese club AS Douanes after being spotted at the 2009 CHAN finals in Ivory Coast.
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Following a solid three-year shift with The Team of Choice he was enticed to SuperSport United where he spent another three years before returning home to West Africa with reason to smile.
"I was meant to have gone for trials at French club Saint-Etienne one month after the CHAN finals, but my agent told me that Maritzburg United have tabled an offer which was good for me instead of waiting for the trials in France," Diouf tells KickOff.com from home in Mbour, Senegal.
"So, when I came here it was just to have a few sessions while assessing the environment and a fitness check before I signed a few days later because I really liked the club and the place plus the boss liked me.
"What made it easier for me was that I joined Maritzburg with fellow countryman Vito Badiane who I stayed with.
"In Senegal, I had been earning the equivalent of about USD500 (approx. R9200) at AS Douanes and when I got to Maritzburg I was started on R39 000 so I'm sure you understand when I say it was a huge difference," he discloses.
"Before I came to South Africa, I already had a house and a small car here in Senegal and was living a decent life.
"However, in moving to SA I was then able to invest in property and start some kind of business.
"I now have seven houses here in Senegal, but I gave one to my mother and the rest of the family while I'm staying in the other.
"Here in Senegal, you must look after your family which is why I paid for my brother to go and work in Italy while I also put in funds for my mother to go to Mecca.
"I also have some small cars which carry four to five people working as taxis locally and at present, I have five of those cars though I tend to sell them every now and then depending on several factors.
"Through my playing days I was disciplined and always remembered that football is not a long career so I'm glad that my family is well looked after with my three kids going to good schools because of the choices that I made while still earning good money," says Doiuf.
Moving to Supersport United
"I spent three years at SuperSport and won the Telkom KnockOut at the club.
"Before I joined SuperSport there was a team from the USA that was keen on me, but my agent then told me that their offer wasn't better than what SuperSport was offering.
"So, in the end, it didn't make sense for me to leave South Africa plus the SuperSport offer was way much better than what I had been getting at Maritzburg.
The famous goal he scored from 65 metres out against Mamelodi Sundowns in March 2013 which won him goal of the season.
"It wasn't the first time that I had scored a goal like that in my career, I had done it before while still playing here in Senegal.
"I scored a similar goal here in Senegal before.
"The people that I have trained with know that I'm capable of doing that.
"With that goal against Sundowns I saw the keeper (Wayne Sandilands) moving out of his area a lot and was just waiting for the chance to do my thing.
"The celebration of folding my hands was just confirmation that I know I can do this thing.
"From my time in South Africa, I suppose that was my best goal of the 10 goals that I scored through the time I spent playing there," says Diouf while revealing that his ability to score goals was due to having played as a number 10 before.
"In the academy where I played, I was a number 10, and all other positions,
"I only became a defender at AS Douanes when our central defender got injured and my coach asked that I play there and I said, 'no problem'.
"In my first game, I excelled, and the coach then told me that I will now play there from that moment onwards," he says.
After SuperSport United…
"I had a three-year deal with an option of another year at SuperSport but towards the end of the third year, the club was delaying exercising that option.
"My wife was expecting at that time and my visa was due to expire as well so with the option not being taken, I had no choice but to go back to Senegal with my heavily pregnant and older son Mohammed who was born (2012) in Pretoria.
"After that, I returned to Senegal to play for MPYC because the other offer in South Africa was from Maritzburg and not good enough.
"At that stage, I was in the process of applying for my permanent residence but abandoned the mission when I left South Africa," says Diouf who is now the coach of table-topping third-division club Mbour Academy since his retirement in 2019.
"I was meant to have been at a bigger club by now, but I have only recently started doing my CAF licence recently and maybe in the future I will land a coaching job in South Africa," he says.
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