Speaking to Matt Comito for KEEPUP is former Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix cult hero Eugene Dadi, who can hardly believe his stint in the A-Leagues lasted only two seasons after the way it started.
Just days after arriving in Perth for the first time, Eugene Dadi knew he had found the place to raise his young son.
“It was perfect, absolutely perfect,” Dadi told KEEPUP, reflecting on his earliest memories of the city he called home for just over one year.
The Ivorian striker was granted permanent Australian residency in between his first and second season at the club. What followed was one of life’s greatest ‘what if’ moments for the then-36-year-old, as his ‘perfect’ Perth stint fell apart.
“Who asked me to leave Australia?” Dadi said, shaking his head wearing a wry smile. “This is a bad decision that I took.
He added: ”When I came to Perth with my wife at the time, after three days we thought that was the place to live. My son was very small, and we thought it was the place to make him grow, and to live there.
“It was perfect, absolutely perfect. And the club as well, the club did everything to make me feel comfortable.
“It was a surprise that I left, and a big disappointment because everything was perfect there for me. People loved me, I was doing well on the pitch, and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t stay more, why I (didn’t) deserve to sign the extended contract, (maybe) because of my age but I was delivering on the pitch so the age wasn’t important.”
Dadi’s first season in Perth couldn’t have gone any better. He ended the 2008-09 A-League season level on 10 goals with Nikita Rukavytsya, sharing the club’s golden boot with the young Aussie striker.
He left the club with two games to play that season on a loan deal with FC Vaduz in the Swiss Super League, in a bid to remain fit for the following A-League campaign. It was during his Switzerland stay when Dadi became a permanent resident, flying back to Perth in February, 2009 to make it official.
But by the end of his loan move, Dadi returned to find himself down in the Glory pecking order, behind the likes of Mile Sterjovski, Jamie Harnwell and Branko Jelic in Glory boss Dave Mitchell’s preferences.
“When I went and I came back, a few other players came in my spot, so I was surprised of that, because I was doing things,” Dadi said.
“I guess this is football. From one day to another I wasn’t in the high (regard) of people (as) the Dadi anymore. Even though I was doing the business.
“I was disappointed that things became that way, because I was still performing well.
“Yes, I got permanent residency, because I was there to last, to stay longer. From one day to (another) it wasn’t there anymore, so I needed to change.
“I wanted to stay. The entire town seemingly wanted to stay. And the club wanted me to stay. Unfortunately the one who decided for me to stay or to leave didn’t want me to stay, so that was it. That was the situation.
“In Perth, everything was great. Yeah, It was too short, it was too short.
“But I regret, because I thought maybe (if I came) one or two years earlier it would have been much better – even still much longer, (but) I left from the Phoenix.
“The regret is (when) I left I didn’t even say goodbye to the boys in Perth. That was so, so disappointing. But I left. Because like I said, they wanted me to be with them. Everything went quick, it went so quick. I didn’t even have time to do a lot of things.
“But you know, from one day to another you need to go and take your bags, take a plane and you are out. This is exactly the way it happened.”
Dadi now lives in France. His son Paco, who was just a child upon first arrival in Perth, is 15 – and ‘three inches taller’ than his father.
He never got the chance to grow up in Australia.
‘Unfortunately for him he’s not a striker, he’s a defensive midfielder,” Dadi said. “I don’t know if he’s my son, because he’s left-footed!”
WATCH BELOW: Eugene Dadi joins KEEPUP to reflect on short but sweet A-Leagues stint
‘Strangely, I didn’t hesitate’ – the night out which sealed Dadi’s Phoenix move
Just six appearances and three starts through the start of the 2009-10 A-League season left Eugene Dadi feeling the need for a change in scenery.
In early 2010, a new opportunity arose: to travel across the ditch and join Wellington Phoenix as Ricki Herbert’s side hurtled towards a third-place finish.
But it wasn’t the location, or the team’s success which coerced Dadi to join the ‘Nix.
“I went to Wellington (with Perth) playing against the Phoenix one or two times,” Dadi said.
“I met Leo Bertos, at the time he was at Perth so when we were there in Wellington after the game, we went for a night out.
“I was there with the other guys of Phoenix, having a drink, having a laugh, and I really felt at this time they were a great bunch of boys, really good characters, really good personalities.
“When this situation came and I was in trouble in Perth, I had a phone call from Leo saying ‘would you come to us?’ Strangely, I didn’t hesitate.
“If another club came, I really don’t know. At the time all I knew is Leo told me they wanted me to be there with them.”
More than two months passed between Dadi’s last game for Perth in November, 2009 and his first game for Wellington in January, 2010.
He took no time at all to introduce himself to the Wellington faithful.
“For me when I went to Phoenix and everything happened (in) a few weeks, few days before, I went to the new club and I needed to establish myself, and to prove something.
“To prove something to myself first, because I knew that I could do much better than I did last time in Perth if I had the opportunity.
“(I said) ‘okay Eugene, you said you can do that, okay so prove to yourself first’. This was my focus.”
Dadi made his Phoenix debut in a 3-1 home win over Brisbane Roar. He scored a debut brace, including one of the A-League’s all-time greatest goals.
“Now, about the bicycle kick, it was one of those moments. I’ve done it lots of time in the professional game, but I’ve hit the bar, I’ve hit the bird that was flying, or I could have broke my back or something like this.
“I’ve tried it lots of times, but this, I thought it was the right time, the right moment for this one to be good.”
His debut brace sparked a whirlwind 10-game Phoenix spell, in which Dadi scored five goals as the ‘Nix made it all the way to the 2010 preliminary final.
The Ivorian scored a late consolation goal in a 4-2 loss to Sydney FC on that day in March, 2010.
Unbeknownst to him, it would be the last goal of his professional career.
“I thought – I don’t know, I don’t know what happened,” Dadi said when pondering the months that followed Wellington’s finals exit.
“Everything was okay for me to stay there as well, but unfortunately I would say family reasons wanted me to leave there. This is the way it happened.”
How injury prevented Dadi / Drogba link-up
Picture this: Eugene Dadi and Didier Drogba leading the line as Côte d’Ivoire’s devastating attack duo.
It’s how Dadi envisaged his international career to unfold after his first cap for his national side in 2000, before an injury at club side Toulouse FC saw that dream come to a grinding halt.
By the time he had recovered, Drogba was flying.
“(My international debut) was against Egypt, it was an African qualifier, that was an away game, probably 2000-2001.
“The memory was good. At the time the players were great players like the Toure brothers… Yaya and Kolo, and a few others. They were young at the time, and it was a great experience as well.
“Didier Drogba came after that. Actually, I was in Toulouse in Ligue 1, I went there, I had this (international) game and when I came back from that game, maybe two or three weeks later I had an injury, a very important injury on my knee.
“That set me off for the whole season, then Didier Drogba came just after that. Maybe we could have done something together up front there, I don’t know, but definitely I went, then he came and killed everything so he was the only one there, and that was it.
“Disappointment and sadness as well, because playing for my mum’s country, my family and parents were looking forward to that but then the opportunity went in a bad way.
That famous chant
“Who’s your Dadi? Who’s your Dadi?”
They’re the words that rang around the stands, first at HBF Park during Eugene Dadi’s stint in Perth before following him to Wellington where his brief but brilliant cameo almost helped the Phoenix to a maiden A-League Grand Final.
Dadi admits the chant didn’t just accompany him across the Tasman Sea. It travelled along with him wherever he ventured throughout his career.
“Yes, yes – I love that song but this song follows me since my early days in Scotland with Aberdeen,” he said. “The Aberdeen fans created this song and this song has just followed me everywhere I’ve been in English-speaking countries. I wasn’t surprised that the Shed took it as well.
“(There were) different versions, actually. But the whole thing started with the Red Army in Aberdeen. I don’t want to disappoint a lot of people, but I have to be honest, I would say Aberdeen (did it best), because like I said they created it, and because they were the first.
“I was surprised, me coming from France and getting there, suddenly I started hearing all the (chants) and I thought ‘wow, this is good’.
“In Perth it was good as well.”
More than a decade on from his two-season A-League stint, Dadi says he looks more like ‘a boxer’ than a footballer these days; without his iconic dreadlocks you would be forgiven for not recognising him if you passed him in the street.
But Dadi says the old, famous song still rings true.
“I’ve got no hair anymore, (I’m) a bit bigger as well – but I’m still the Dadi!”
