Eugène Dadi (born 20 August 1973 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) is an Ivorian football striker who plays for A-League club Perth Glory. ^[1]

[edit] Biography

[edit] FC Sochaux

Dadi attended the football academy at FC Sochaux as a teenager.

[edit] Stade Lavallois

Dadi played his first professional football at Stade Lavallois in 1989. He played until 1992 when his father died. At this point he decided to quit professional football for two years.

[edit] LASK Linz

After being spotted playing park football on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, where he was working in real estate, Dadi was signed to Austrian club LASK Linz.^[2]

[edit] Aberdeen

Eugène Dadi only spent one season at Aberdeen that in terms of scoring goals was not great. However, he was a firm fans' favourite and had become somewhat of a cult hero with Aberdeen fans. This was due to his last name, which inspired the popular terrace chant of "Who's yer, who's yer, who's yer fuckin' Dadi."^[2]

Highlights of his time at Aberdeen included four SPL goals, but perhaps is most warmly remembered for a sublime piece of trickery, bamboozling Celtic defender Bobo Balde during a 2-0 win at Pittodrie in December 2001.

[edit] Tranmere Rovers

Dadi had two successful seasons on the Wirral with Tranmere Rovers. He played up-front and scored 28 goals. In his first season in 2002-03 he finished the clubs top scorer, scoring great goals against Notts County and Chesterfield. He also scored the first goal against Bolton in the FA Cup third round replay at the Reebok Stadium, a game which Tranmere Rovers won 2–1. In his second season he helped Rovers finish in the play offs and was a regular up front with Iain Hume. He was a fans favourite and always had his hair in a "pineapple" shape. He left the club in the summer and joined Nottingham Forest.^[3][2]

[edit] Perth Glory

Dadi first trialled with the club in November 2007 but was denied an opportunity to join Perth Glory when his previous club Hapoel Acre failed to release him during the transfer window.^[4] He took part in the Glory's post-season tour of China and impressed coaching staff enough to offer him a permanent contract with the club.

Dadi's first A-League goal with the club came in the second match of the 2008–09 A-League season, against Newcastle United Jets at Members Equity Stadium in Perth. Dadi rose to meet a well-weighted cross from fellow import Amaral, and slammed home a powerful header past helpless goalkeeper Ante Covic.^[5] His next two goals were against A-League Sydney FC, Perth ended up being defeated by Sydney 5–2, in a game in which one of Perth's defenders was sent of for spitting in the direction of the referee Peter Green.

Dadi scored a late winner to beat Wellington Phoenix 1–0 and a late penalty which he had to retake to equalise against Newcastle Jets to keep the Glory within touch of the A-League top four. On December 6, Dadi scored two goals in four minutes in Perth Glory's 3–1 win over Melbourne Victory. In Glory's match against the Victory in January, Dadi again scored twice to lead Glory to a 3–2 victory.^[6]

He re-signed with the club until the end of the 2009/10 season, however he missed the last two games of Perth's 2008/09 season to begin a five month loan at Swiss Super League side FC Vaduz.^[7]

[edit] Personal Life

Eugène owns his own fashion label and can speak three languages fluently – English, French and German. He spent a year in Austria as an actor.^[2] Dadi took two years off football after the death of his father in the early 1990s.^[2]

[edit] A-League career statistics

(Correct as of 1 October 2009)

[edit] Honours

Personal Honours:

• Perth Glory Member's Player of the Year: 2008-2009

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Perth Glory profile
• Fashion Label website