Paulo Di Canio – The Mad Genius

Di Canio grew up in a working-class area of Rome which was a stronghold of AS Roma fans. Di Canio decided to go against the grain and support their city rivals Lazio from an early age. He signed his first professional contract with with his boyhood team in 1985 at the age of 17, having impressed with the club’s Under-19 team.³

Despite joining in 1985, Di Canio made his debut in the 1988/99 season. He went on to play 30 matches in the season for the newly promoted Lazio. ¹

He becomes an instant hero among the Lazio ultras as he scores against city rivals Roma. His celebration for the goal would follow him his whole career as he proceeded to make the Mussolini fascist salute to the fans.

*If you want to see I would suggest you look up Lazio vs Roma 1988/89.*

Pictured is the Paulo Di Canio rookie sticker.

Plays 24 matches, scoring three goals.¹ The highly talented player got interest from Juventus and moved to them the next season.

Moves to Juventus and scores three times in 23 appearances.¹

Plays 24 times scoring 0 goals.¹³ Many appearances coming from the bench.

He won the UEFA Cup with Juventus but struggled for first team football.⁴ Struggled for first team football with Juventus having many stars such as: Roberto Baggio, Salvatore Schillaci, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Gianluca Vialli, and Andreas Möller.⁵

Di Canio has heated disagreements with manager and moves to Napoli and the season.⁶

Heads south to Napoli, making 26 appearances and scoring five goals.¹ Di Canio’s impressive performances lead him to be elected in the Serie A Team of the Year.⁴

With his contract running out, Di Canio wanted to resign with Napoli but due to the clubs financial problems this wasn’t possible, thus he returned to Juventus to see out his contract.

Restricted to just four starts at Milan. Makes another 11 appearances from the bench and scores one goal against Fiorentina in January.¹

Another manager confrontation. This time with Fabio Capello and resulted in him leaving Italy to head for Scotland.

Becomes a firm favourite with Celtic fans, scoring 12 goals in 26 league games as the club finish runners-up to Rangers in title race. In total scores 15 times in 37 matches.

Becomes the Scottish Premier League’s 1996/97 “Player of the Year”.⁷

Breaches his contract by refusing to join his Celtic team-mates at their Dutch training camp and Celtic threaten him with a three-year ban. Following the debacle Di Canio announces his intention to quit Celtic after the manager says he is unimpressed with the player’s attitude in training.¹

I would note that Di Canio’s Panini Celtic stickers are very difficult find. I am yet to find any and will actively continue to look.

August 6 – Joins Sheffield Wednesday in a £4.5million deal. Scores 12 times in Premiership to finish the club’s top scorer.¹

He was an instant fan favourite (you can see this is becoming a pattern) striking up a fantastic relationship with compatriot Benito Carbone on the field.

Wins Sheffield Wednesday’s player of the season (97/98).⁸

More Di Canio controversy as he Pushes referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being sent off in the clash with Arsenal at Hillsborough. He received an 11-match ban from the Football Association, including the 3 matches for the initial red card. He is also fined £10,000 by the English FA and £68,000 by Wednesday. Di Canio is suspended for two weeks and he does not return from a break in Italy. Later says he is suffering from stress and depression. Is suspended for a further two weeks and docked another two weeks’ wages by Wednesday when he fails to appear for home game against Leicester.¹ 

Declared fit after Wednesday receive report into his health. But Wednesday refuse to pay Di Canio the £102,000 he was fined while he was in Italy claiming he was ill. January 27 – Joins West Ham for £1.7million.¹

You can see this documented in his products for the year. We see that last sticker below in the West Ham kit, from the transfer update set.

Despite the sour exit, relationships with Sheffield have been restored.

Wins West Ham’s top scorer for the year with 16 goals and 8 assists.^{9 15}

Paolo Di Canio scored one of the greatest goals in West Ham United history: his famous volley against Wimbledon. There were just nine minutes gone in the Irons’ Premier League clash with the Dons at the Boleyn Ground on Sunday 26 March 2000, when Trevor Sinclair launched a diagonal cross into the penalty area. Rather than control the ball before unleashing a shot, the enigmatic and supremely talented Di Canio launched himself into the air before arrowing an unstoppable first-time shot past goalkeeper Neil Sullivan with the outside of his right foot.²

 “The Wimbledon goal was very good!” he smiled. “The delivery was a typical English delivery, you know, as it was a delivery that started and arrived quickly. In an instant, I saw this ball arrive and I did a bicycle volley instinctively and the percentage of the difficulty is 99 per cent. But, if you see the change in the air, it is a harmony that only the dancer can have.”²

Played 31 games scoring 9.¹⁵

Does an incredible act of sportsmanship where he catches a ball in mid-air to stop the play. It should be said that he catches the ball instead of scoring a goal into an open net!

Played 26 scoring 9.¹⁵

Awarded FIFA’s Fair Play Award for 2001 in recognition of his “special act of good sportsmanship” in West Ham’s game at Everton the previous season.¹

West Ham boss Glenn Roeder confirms Manchester United made a bid for the player which the club rejected.¹

Di Canio rejects Manchester United. Di Canio, “It was strange for me to say no to Sir Alex. I said ‘thanks, 1000 times thanks, but I can’t. West Ham are the family that warmed to me in the worst moment in my life, I’m the skipper, I can’t.’”
Di Canio quoting Ferguson, “,‘Paolo, respect for this, I love people that think in this way. You are the man that I thought you were’,”.¹⁰

I think this is key to understanding who Di Canio is. An extremely temperamental but passionate person. If someone shows him faith, he will return it 10 fold.

Played 18 scoring 9 again.¹⁵

Despite the loyalty Di Canio shows to West Ham its déjà vu. Di Canio has another heated row with then West Ham manager and is dropped from the first team. ¹¹

West Ham are relegated from the Premier League and Di Canio is released.

Signs a one-year deal with Charlton as a free agent.¹

Played 31 scoring 4 and assisting 12!¹⁵

In his one season at The Valley, Di Canio helped Charlton Athletic finish the season in 7th position, the club’s highest league finish since the 1950s.¹¹

Lazio is in economic turmoil and Di Canio takes a major pay-cut to return to his boyhood club.¹²

He scores again against AS Roma like 16 years earlier. The controversy continued with Di Canio as he celebrated with the fans by doing the unsavoury Mussolini salute on various occasions. This generated bad press, as you can imagine, and his relationship with the club’s Ultras generates negative headlines for the club.¹ It should be noted, doing the Roman salute is technically illegal in Italy.⁵

Following all the controversy, Di Canio’s playing time a decreased and it was decided his contract would not be renewed.

These are Di Canio’s last products during his playing career. He retired from professional in 2008.

Di Canio has gone on to have a managing career taking jobs and Swindon and Sunderland. And of course these were full of controversy and comedy. “League 1 Wes” comes to mind ????.