Which gaddafi son played soccer

From an early age, Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the third son of the former dictator, was obsessed with football. In , he began playing as a forward for Alahly Tripoli, one of Libya's biggest clubs, before moving to local rivals Al-Ittihad Tripoli a year later. OptaLotfi pic. In Italy, a country in which his father had considerable business connections, Al-Saadi hired the Argentine legend Diego Armando Maradona as his technical consultant.

In , Al-Saadi joined the Champions League-bound side Udinese, playing only 10 minutes in an end-of-season match against Cagliari. First he tried buying shares in Lazio and Roma, Neither of these endeavours proved fruitful, but it did attracted the attention of Perugia. Luciano Gaucci, the eccentric president who Al-Saadi caught the eye of, was the man who signed off on the deal to sign the Libyan captain.

The controversial figure ordered Perugia to sign the son of the Libyan leader. He wanted to use the signing as a show of building links with Libya. If he plays badly…so be it. This suspension came after making his one and only Serie A appearance for Perugia.

It came against the team that he held 7. It became clear before his debut he had to resign as a Juventus shareholder due to player registration rules. He came on as a substitute with 15 minutes left in the game, with Perugia up and on the verge of avoiding relegation from Serie A.

Al-Saadi did not have much impact on the game. Jay Bothroyd , the highly rated Arsenal younger signed from Coventry was new to Perugia, and instantly latched on to Al-Saadi Gaddafi when he moved to Italy. However, he soon became friends with Gaddafi, as the pair were the only English speakers in the squad. Al-Saadi has since been extradited back to Libya on murder charges, during the countries civil war. His father was killed during a coup in , and Al-Saadi was reportedly tortured while in prison in He was cleared of the murder of footballer Bashir al-Riani in He was softly spoken, generous — maybe too generous.

Gaddafi moved to Udinese and then Sampadoria in Serie A, making one appearance and once again failing to impress. His friendship with Bothroyd remains but his football career to an end. His father was killed in and his power over the Libyan people vanquished. His story will always remain as an enigma. His name was Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the third son of controversial former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a forward looking to fulfil his football dream in Europe.

With his father's power and money behind him, Al-Saadi managed to sign for Perugia having previously only played professionally in Libya. While most Perugia players opted to ignore their new teammate in case of saying the wrong thing, Kalac bothered with no such filter and soon found himself becoming friends with the aspiring footballer.

Why are you getting treated like this? Al-Saadi would go on to feature just once as a substitute for Perugia and even offered to shout all of his teammates a Mercedes to mark the occasion.