Paolo Di Canio signed montage. A legend of West Ham. Paolo Di Canio was born in Rome, in the district of Quarticciolo.
He signed for Lazio, in 1985; here he remained until 1990, moving to another of Italy's biggest clubs, Juventus. He stayed there until 1993 and successive seasons saw him join first Napoli and then A.C. Milan. In 1996 he joined Celtic in Scotland, and his successful season in Glasgow (scoring 15 goals in 37 appearances) saw him make a move to the English Premiership as he joined Sheffield Wednesday for a sum of around £4.2m. Whilst in Sheffield, Paolo was the club's leading goal scorer for the 1997-98 season with 14 goals and he became a favourite of the fans.
In England, Di Canio is famous for an incident on the pitch in 1998 where he pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being sent off while playing for Sheffield Wednesday against Arsenal at Hillsborough. Claiming that Wednesday did not wish to support him after the incident, he went home to Italy and refused to return and thus forced Wednesday to try to offer him for sale at a lower-than-market figure. In January 1999, Di Canio signed for West Ham United for £1.7m and helped them to achieve a high league position (5th) and qualify for the UEFA Cup, albeit through the "back door" route of the Intertoto Cup. He was also the OPTA player of the season 1998-99. He scored the BBC Goal of the Season in 2000 with a volley against Wimbledon, which is still considered among the best goals in Premiership history. In this season he was also voted Hammer of the Year by the club's fans.
In 2001, he won the FIFA Fair Play Award. The previous December, in a match against Everton, in a noteworthy display of sportsmanship, Di Canio shunned a goal scoring opportunity and caught the ball from a cross instead as the Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was lying injured on the ground after he twisted his knee attempting a clearance on the edge of the box. FIFA described the act as "a special act of good sportsmanship.”
He remained a key figure at West Ham until 2003 when, with the Hammers struggling at the bottom of the league, he had a very public row with manager Glenn Roeder and was exiled from the first team. However, he returned at the end of the season and scored a winner against Chelsea in the penultimate game of the season that looked to have preserved West Ham's Premiership status. Sadly, it proved to be irrelevant and they were relegated on the final day of the season. He was released on a free transfer and signed a contract with Charlton Athletic for the start of 2003/04.
Even though he had already signed an extension to his Charlton contract, in August 2004 he returned to his home team of Lazio taking a massive paycut in order to return to the economically stretched Roman team. Lazio fans were happy to have a Rome-bred Lazio supporter in the team again, something missing since the departure of Alessandro Nesta in 2002. He scored in the Rome derby, just as he had in 1989, leading the team to a 3-1 victory in January 2005. However the negative publicity that Di Canio generated for Lazio, including his intimate relationship with club's ultras and their increased influence thanks to his presence in the team, coupled with problems with some teammates and coaches, exasperated his already difficult relationship with, club president and majority shareholder, Claudio Lotito who decided not to renew his contract in the summer of 2006. He subsequently signed with Cisco Roma of Serie C2 on a free transfer. In his first season with Cisco Roma, his team failed promotion to playoffs, despite a runners-up position in the regular season. He subsequently agreed to stay with Cisco for another season, in a second attempt to win promotion to Serie C1 with the Roman side.
On March 10, 2008, Di Canio announced his retirement from football, ending his career before the end of the season due to physical issues. It is of his intention to begin coaching lessons at Coverciano to gain a coaching position. In an interview he revealed that his dream would be to manage former club West Ham. |
