Paolo Di Canio

At 56 years old, Paolo Di Canio has this physical status:

Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian football manager and former professional footballer.

During his playing career he made over 500 league appearances and scored over one hundred goals appearing primarily as a deep-lying forward but could also play as an attacking midfielder, or as a winger.

A talented yet controversial player, Di Canio was known for his creativity, eye for goal, technical ability, and dribbling skills, as well as his temperamental character, tenacity and aggression on the pitch.Di Canio began his career in the Italian Serie A, playing for Lazio, Juventus, Napoli and A.C.

Milan, before a brief spell with the Scottish club Celtic.

He subsequently spent seven years in the English Premier League with Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Charlton Athletic.

He returned to Italy in 2004, playing for Lazio and Cisco Roma before retiring in 2008.

He played for the Italian under-21s, making 9 appearances and scoring 2 goals, and was notably a member of the squad that finished in third place at the 1990 UEFA European Under-21 Championship under manager Cesare Maldini, but was never capped for the senior team.Among the individual awards he received as a player, Di Canio was named SPFA Players' Player of the Year in 1997 and West Ham's player of the season in 2000.

However, his career was at times characterised by controversy: he received an eleven-match ban in 1998 for pushing a referee and attracted negative publicity over his self allegiance to fascism. In 2011, Di Canio entered football management in England with Swindon Town, guiding them in his first full season as manager to promotion to League One.

He was appointed as the Sunderland manager at the end of March 2013.

His controversial appointment lasted 13 games until he was sacked on 22 September after Sunderland had won only three games under his managership.

Early life

Di Canio was born in Rome, in the district of Quarticciolo, a working-class area populated mainly by A.S. Roma fans. However, Di Canio was drawn to their local rivals S.S. Lazio. As a young boy, he was addicted to cola and similar drinks and called Pallocca, a slang term meaning lard-ball. He was fat, and knock-kneed, and needed to wear orthopedic shoes – "But I never hid. My response was to exercise; to try to become the kind of person I am."

Personal life

Di Canio has several tattoos, including on his right biceps the Latin word "DUX", meaning "leader" or, in Italian, Il Duce—a nickname for Benito Mussolini. Sky Sport Italia was forced to apologize after Di Canio appeared as a pundit in September 2016 in a short-sleeved shirt, thus revealing the tattoo to television viewers; he was later suspended by the station. His back is covered with a tattoo of fascist imagery, including an eagle, fasces, and a portrait of Mussolini. He also has a West Ham United tattoo on his left upper arm and a tattoo of his father on his chest.

Di Canio has spoken also of the growing influence in his life of Samurai culture, and of the Japanese spiritual mentality from reading Mishima, and the teachings in the traditions of Hagakure and Bushido.

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Playing career

In 1985, he came to Lazio and stayed there until 1990. In 1988, Lazio won promotion to Serie A after barely escaping relegation to Serie C1 the year before. He made his first-team debut in October 1988 and went on to play 30 games in 1988-89. In the first Rome derby of the season, Di Canio scored the winner, contributing to Lazio's resurgent status in Serie A and winning him hero status. He was sold to Juventus, another of Italy's top clubs, in 1990, although he won the UEFA Cup with the Turin side in 1993, Fabrizio Casiraghi, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Gianluca Vialli, and Andreas Möller were among the team's returning players. He left Juventus after a "animated chat" with then-manager Giovanni Trattoni and spent the 1993–94 season with Napoli. Two seasons followed at A.C. Milan, where, despite winning the Serie A championship in 1996, he once more struggled to gain playing time due to intense competition from his teammates, this time with Fabio Capello.

He joined Celtic in Scotland in July 1996. He scored 15 goals in 37 appearances and received the SPFA Player of the Year award in his first season with the club. However, his time in Glasgow was marred by controversies beginning in November 1996, when he was sent off during a 2–2 draw against Hearts and was heavily involved in a tense league match against Rangers in March 1997, where he was led from the field by teammates. After the teams returned to the dressing room and was given another yellow card in comparison to the one he had received earlier in the game, he was called to the referee's room. He wanted a big wage increase at the end of the season, but Celtic refused to do so. During July 1997, he refused to join the Dutch squad for their pre-season training.

Di Canio joined Sheffield Wednesday in a transfer agreement worth around £4.2 million, on August 6, 1997. Di Canio, the club's top goal scorer for the 1997–98 season, was a fan of the fans while in Sheffield.

Di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being banned from playing for Sheffield Wednesday against Arsenal at Hillsborough, resulting in an extended suspension of 11 games and him being fined £10,000.

Di Canio signed for West Ham United in January 1999 for £1.5 million. Since being banned after his fight against Paul Alcock, he had not played football since his suspension. Harry Redknapp, the West Ham manager, admitted that he was taking a chance but that "he can do things with the ball that people can only imagine." "I made a mistake and I'm sorry," Di Canio said of his suspension. "West Ham has given me a great opportunity, and I'm delighted." In his fourth game, he scored his first goal for West Ham on February 27, 1999. Di Canio scored the second time in the 31st minute in the second minute while playing against Blackburn Rovers for the first time. He aided them in achieving a good league position (5th) and qualifying for the Intertoto Cup through the Intertoto Cup. He was also the OPTA player of the season 1998-99. In a December 2009 Sky Sports News readers' poll, he scored the BBC Goal of the Season in March 2000 with a volley against Wimbledon, which is still one of the finest Premiership goals in history, and was named as the Premiership's target of the decade. He was also named Hammer of the Year by the club's fans this year.

Di Canio shunned a goal-scoring chance and stopped play early in December 2000, barely playing outside the box as Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was lying injured on the ground after attempting a clearance across the box's edge. The Goodison Park crowd erupted with a standing ovation. FIFA lauded Di Canio's gesture, describing it as "a unique act of sportsmanship" and awarding him the FIFA Fair Play Award next year.

Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to sign him for Manchester United halfway through the 2002–02 season, but his attempts were fruitless, and Di Canio stayed in East London for another season and a half. Di Canio said he would not be able to leave West Ham, who had offered him a lifeline in the worst time in his life.

Di Canio had a public spat with boss Glenn Roeder in 2003, and was booted from the first team. However, he returned at the end of the season (after Roeder was stricken by a brain tumor) and scored a winner against Chelsea in the penultimate game of the season, a game that boosted West Ham's hopes of remaining in the Premiership. However, they were relegated on the final day of the season after a 2–2 draw away to Birmingham City, where Di Canio scored an 89th-minute equalizer. He was released on a free transfer and joined Charlton Athletic for the 2003–04 season.

Di Canio's one-season with The Valley saw Charlton Athletic finish in seventh place, the club's highest league finish since the 1950s. However, he only scored four league goals for the Addicks, all of which came from the penalty spot (one from a bounce). Against Arsenal, one of the penalty kicks was a spectacular 'Panenka' style penalty kick. Di Canio, on the other hand, remained a goal-provider, particularly in October 2003 when he took over as a second-half replacement with Charlton trailing 0–1 away at Portsmouth. He provided the majority of Charlton's much-improved second-half display, and after Jonathan Fortune equalized for Charlton, it was from Di Canio's corner kick in the last minute that Shaun Bartlett headed home the winning goal.

Despite having already signed a contract extension with Charlton, the actor returned to his hometown team of Lazio in August 2004 in the hopes of returning to the Roman team, which was financially strapped. Fans of Lazio were excited to have a Rome-bred Lazio supporter in the team again, something that was missing after the departure of Alessandro Nesta in 2002. He scored in the Rome derby, just as he did in 1989, leading the team to a 3–1 victory over A.S. Roma on January 6, 2005. However, the bad press generated for Lazio by Di Canio, including his close friendship with the club's ultras and their rising fame as a result of his presence on the team, as well as problems with some teammates and coaches, frustrated club president and majority shareholder Claudio Lotito, with whom he already had a difficult friendship, was troubling. As a result, Di Canio's deal was not renewed in the summer of 2006. During several of his games for Lazio, Di Canio saluted their right-wing followers, even during goal celebrations. He later joined Cisco Roma of Serie C2 as a free agent. Despite a runners-up finish in the regular season, his team lost promotion to playoffs in his first season with Cisco Roma. In a second attempt to gain promotion to Serie C1 with the Roman side, he opted to remain with Cisco for another season.

Di Canio resigned from football on March 10, 2008, putting an end to his 23-year playing career before the season comes due to physical problems. It was his intention to start teaching lessons at Coverciano in order to obtain a teaching role. In an interview, he confessed that his dream was to lead West Ham after Alan Curbishley's resignation in September 2008. On May 5, 2010, Di Canio was playing in Tony Carr's testimonial game at Upton Park, which featured a West Ham squad against the West Ham Academy old boys. During the game, he appeared on both directions. The West Ham team defeated the West Ham United States 5–1. West Ham announced the opening of the Paolo Di Canio Lounge inside the West Stand in July 2010, the first in honor of Di Canio himself, at their Upton Park ground, which was officially opened on September 11, 2010.

Di Canio was never capped for Italy at the senior level, but he did win 11 call-ups and nine caps between 1988 and 1990, scoring twice.

Managerial career

Following the club's demotion to League Two, Di Canio was appointed manager of Swindon Town on a two-year deal on May 20. Di Canio began his career as a manager with a 3–0 victory over Crewe Alexandra on August 6, 2011. After losing in the League Cup to Southampton on August 30, 2011, Di Canio was involved in a pitch-side altercation with Swindon striker Leon Clarke. Swindon shocked Wigan Athletic 2–1 in January 2012, causing a FA Cup shock. Di Canio said that his players deserved to have their names on the field and that he wished to honor his father, who died in 2011. He was sent to the stands later this month in a league match against Macclesfield Town for vociferously expressing his dissatisfaction with his team's not being given a free-kick. Swindon won the game 1–0 and his team was fighting for promotion to League One with over half of the season.

Swindon defeated Chesterfield 2–0 in the 2012 Football League Trophy Final, under Di Canio.

Despite Di Canio's side losing 3–1 to Gillingham on the same day, Swindon were promoted to League One following Crawley Town's 1–1 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge and Torquay United's 2–0 loss to AFC Wimbledon on Monday. He devoted the promotion to his parents, although his mother died a few months after his father died in April of that year. Swindon defeated Port Vale by 5–0 in the Football League Two just over a week later. Swindon finished the season with 93 points.

Despite being knocked out of the FA Cup and the Football League Trophy in their first game against lower league opponents, Swindon did have a good run in the League Cup, winning over three teams from higher leagues in 2012. They beat Brighton & Hove Albion 3–0, won against Stoke City 3–4 after extra time, and defeated Burnley 3–1, then barely missing out against Aston Villa 3–2 at home.

Di Canio decided to pay £30,000 of his own money to keep loan players John Bostock, Chris Martin, and Danny Hollands at the club in January 2013.

Di Canio and nearly 200 volunteers volunteered into the night on January 18, 2013, clearing a snow-covered pitch at the County Ground, allowing the game to go forward. He expressed his appreciation by ordering everyone pizza. Swindon defeated Di Canio 2–0 in the match, which Di Canio formally described as a participant.

No funds will be made available for future signings, as the Swindon Town chairman announced in January 2013. To keep loan players at the club, Di Canio offered to pay £30,000 of his own money. With the possibility of the club going into administration, a new owner was found, subject to Football League involvement, and without knowing Di Canio, player Matt Ritchie was sold to AFC Bournemouth. The Football League's latest bids to sign players by Di Canio were turned down by the Football League due to the club's financial situation, with Di Canio "considering his future" at Swindon due to off-field financial difficulties. Di Canio resigned in February, but he said he would leave this area if the new owners' permission was not received by the Football League by 18 February. This didn't happen, and he resigned as the Swindon Town manager.

Following Martin O'Neill's dismissal the day before, Sunderland appointed Di Canio as manager on a two-and-a-half year deal. Due to Di Canio's "past political remarks," the appointment prompted the immediate departure of club vice chairman David Miliband. The recruitment of Di Canio caused the Durham Miners' Union to withhold one of its mining banners from Sunderland's Stadium of Light, which is built on the former Monkwearmouth Colliery site, in an act of protest against the appointment. The opposition was based on previous statements made by Di Canio in favor of fascism.

Following a run of only three points from a potential 24 points, Di Canio was charged with keeping Sunderland in the Premier League. Sunderland's first game as boss resulted in a 2–1 loss to Chelsea. The Tyne–Wear derby against Newcastle United at St James' Park on April 14th was Di Canio's second game in charge. Sunderland won their first away victory in the game in over a decade. Both goals sparked wild celebrations from Di Canio and the Sunderland bench. Di Canio won his first match against Everton at the Stadium of Light.

Despite winning the last three games and losing by a slim 6–1 loss to Aston Villa, Sunderland retained their Premier League status after being defeated by Arsenal and relegated, trailing then-17th placed Sunderland by only one game to play.

Di Canio was asked to integrate 13 players signed by Roberto De Fanti and cope with the loss of veteran players such as Simon Mignolet, James McClean, and Stéphane Sessègnon. Sunderland had gained just a single point from an away draw with Southampton in five league games. Di Canio was suspended on September 22, 2013, the day after the season's fifth match, a 3–0 loss to West Bromwich Albion, and his 13th match in charge. Margaret Byrne, the Sunderland chief executive, announced that Di Canio had been fired after senior players approached her and that his situation became untenable as a result of his "brutal and vitriolic" criticism of the team. This is denied by Di Canio.

In May 2014, Di Canio was linked to Celtic Wanderers and applied for open managerial positions at Bolton Wanderers, and Rotherham United in September 2015 and again in February 2016.

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