BLACKBURN Rovers winger El Hadji Diouf has claimed to be a ‘friend’ of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, it has been reported.

The controversial Senegalese 30-year-old is said to have told Algerian magazine Le Buteur that he had ‘always admired’ Gaddafi.

Western leaders, including David Cameron, Barack Obama, and Nicolas Sarkozy, have vowed to remove Gaddafi from power as Libya descends into civil war, with the dictator accused of killing thousands of his own people.

Diouf is currently on loan at Glasgow Rangers, but could return to Rovers next season. In an interview with the magazine, published this week, he said: “Gaddafi is a man I’ve always admired. I’m telling the truth.

“I know him and I know Seif, his son. They are my friends. But frankly I don’t really know what is happening in Libya, but it must be very hard for Gaddafi and his family.

“I say that, Inch’Allah (Allah willing) victory will go to whoever is right. I don’t know who is right, and who is wrong, but it’s a shame to see so many victims.”

The striker signed for Rangers on loan in January. This season he has seen red in an Old Firm clash, and for Rovers he was accused of taunting Queens Park Rangers’ Jamie Mackie as he lay injured at Ewood Park.

Rovers fan and Lancashire Telegraph columnist John Myles said: “Yet again it seems that Diouf is deliberately courting controversy and unpopularity.

“Everything about Diouf suggests that he would be a good person to travel to Libya to handle the peace negotiations. I think he should travel to the war zone immediately!”