There is one last thing to share from my conversations with Aly Dia's mother.

She told me Dia left Qatar a year or two ago, after his contract ran out. He has just started a one-month trial at a new company. His mother can't recall the company's name. She says Aly is hopeful it will lead to a permanent position.

Dia is trying now to forge a new identity, in a new country. How many people get a chance at a second narrative so close to the place where they became a national punchline?

Of all the places he could be, Aly Dia lives in London.

Two days after meeting with Simon Dia, my mobile rings.

"This is the man you have been searching for," the voice on the other end says.

It's him.

"Oh hello, Aly."

Dia laughs. "I figure you've gone to such an effort, I should reach out."

He is on his way to the airport for a business trip, he says, but wanted to say a few things before this story ran.

Firstly, he's grateful Bleacher Report talked to his parents and his son about his experience at Southampton, because it forced him, finally, to be open with them. In the past few days he has spoken to them for the first time about what happened.

"It has been hurtful for me," he says. "My mother is very shy, especially on this topic. She had just wanted me to focus on my studies. I had been getting all A's, and then I [stopped to] play football.

"I said, 'Mom, I haven't done anything wrong.'"

Dia then spoke with Simon, his only son. "It allowed me to have a frank conversation with [him]," he says, without elaborating.

"There's been a healing process about it."

Dia admits he has been upset by how he's been characterized by the media all these years. "They have portrayed me as a liar, and that is bull.

"I did play for Paris Saint-Germain, in the second tier, in 1986-'88. And I helped win the Paris Cup, in either 1986 or 1987...it's been a while."

Dia says a friend introduced him to a UK-based, African agent by the name of Bachrir Souleman in 1994, and it was Souleman who arranged Dia's contract with Southampton. What's more, Dia says he trained with the Saints for a month-and-a-half before entering that Premier League match against Leeds United.

Contrary to reports, the team didn't just assess his football talent through observing him in five-a-side, the day before the game.

"They have portrayed me as a liar, and that is bull."

Aly Dia

"I trained against the first team, on the reserve team, for two weeks," Dia insists. "[Southampton] knew my abilities. There was a final game before the Leeds game—11 on 11—and I scored two or three goals. I was on fire.

"I earned the spot to be there. Souness said, 'You are in for tomorrow, be ready.' I was not expecting to start. Then the next thing you know, Le Tissier gets injured and I go in. No warm-ups, I just go in."

Dia says people can think what they want about his performance in the game; he gave it his all, and he has no regrets.

"I have a clear conscience. God is going to be our judge."

With that, Dia says he has to go. And that he's open to talking more about his story, but right now he needs to focus on a big business deal he's trying to close, the potential of a new job and maybe moving his family from the UK to a new home in Asia.

Finally the man, the myth who is Aly Dia has spoken—20 years after being cast as football's greatest fraud.

"I have a clear conscience. God is going to be our judge."

Aly Dia

The story now has two sides and it's up to us to make a judgement on which we believe.

Was Dia just an innocent party following his dream and coming up short? Or did that dream drive him to deceive all around him and, as speculated ever since, trick his way onto the biggest stage for a Premier League debut that will never be forgotten?

This is Aly Dia we're talking about, of course. There is always more to follow.





All sources gathered firsthand unless otherwise stated. Graeme Souness was contacted by Bleacher Report but declined to comment. Paris Saint-Germain were contacted to validate Aly Dia's time playing for the club but have not yet responded. All enquiries with regard to the story should be directed to wtidey@bleacherreport.com.