Paolo Di Canio: Difference between revisions

Paolo Di Canio
	Di Canio at Upton Park, September 2010
Personal information
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Swindon Town (manager)
Youth career
	Lazio
Senior career*
Years	Team
1985–1990	Lazio
1986–1987	→ Ternana (loan)
1990–1993	Juventus
1993–1994	Napoli
1994–1996	A.C. Milan
1996–1997	Celtic
1997–1999	Sheffield Wednesday
1999–2003	West Ham United
2003–2004	Charlton Athletic
2004–2006	Lazio
2006–2008	Cisco Roma
Total
Managerial career
2011 -	Swindon Town
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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Revision as of 05:04, 23 May 2011

Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Active in Italy, Scotland and England, Di Canio made over 500 league appearances in his career, scoring over 100 league goals. He is the current manager of Swindon Town.

Career

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, Di Canio 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 infamous for an incident on the pitch in September 1998 where he pushed referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being sent off while playing for Sheffield Wednesday against Arsenal at Hillsborough, which resulted in an extended ban of 11 matches ^[1] and him being fined £10,000.^[2]
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 through the Intertoto Cup. He was also the OPTA player of the season 1998–99. He scored the BBC Goal of the Season in March 2000 with a volley against Wimbledon,^[3] which is still considered among the best goals in Premiership history^[4] and was named as the Premiership's goal of the decade in a December 2009 Sky Sports News viewers' poll, scoring 30% of votes.^[5] 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."^[6]

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 dropped from the first team. However, he returned at the end of the season (after Roeder, stricken by a brain tumour, was replaced by Trevor Brooking) and scored a winner against Chelsea in the penultimate game of the season that looked to have preserved West Ham's Premiership status.^[7] However, it proved to be irrelevant and they were relegated on the final day of the season after a 2–2 draw away to Birmingham City, where he scored an 89th minute equaliser.^[8] He was released on a free transfer and after turning down Leeds United^{[citation needed]} he signed a contract with Charlton Athletic for the start of 2003–04. Whilst at The Valley he helped the club secure its highest league finish since the 1950s. However, he only scored four goals for the Addicks, all of them from the penalty spot (one of them scored from a rebound).

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 over A.S. Roma in January (6 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. During some of the games for Lazio, Di Canio made a fascist salute to the right-wing fans. 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 his intention to begin coaching lessons at Coverciano to gain a coaching position.^[9] In an interview he revealed that his dream would be to manage former club West Ham, and applied for the position after the resignation of Alan Curbishley in September 2008.^[10] On 5 May 2010, Di Canio played in Tony Carr's testimonial game at Upton Park which featured a West Ham team against West Ham Academy old boys. He played for both sides during the match. The West Ham team won 5-1.^[11] In July 2010, in honour of Di Canio, West Ham announced the opening of the 'Paolo Di Canio Lounge', within the West Stand, at their Upton Park ground,^[12] which was formally launched by the unveiling of a plaque by the legendary No.10 himself, on 11 September 2010.^[13]

Managerial career

Di Canio has a UEFA Pro License for coaching. On 20 May 2011 Di Canio was appointed manager of Swindon Town, following the club's relegation to League Two. ^[14]

Fascist politics

Since a very early age Di Canio has been a self-proclaimed fascista and has been photographed and videotaped several times giving the controversial Roman salute to Lazio supporters while playing for Lazio.^[15]

He created controversy by twice using the gesture to salute Lazio fans, first in a match against arch rivals A.S. Roma and then against A.S. Livorno Calcio, a club inclined to leftist politics.^[16] Di Canio received a one match game ban after the second event and was fined €7,000,^[17] after which he was quoted as saying "I will always salute as I did because it gives me a sense of belonging to my people..I saluted my people with what for me is a sign of belonging to a group that holds true values, values of civility against the standardisation that this society imposes upon us."^[18] His salute has been featured on unofficial merchandise sold outside Stadio Olimpico after the ban.^[16] Di Canio has also expressed admiration for Mussolini.^[19]^[20] On the day of his appointment as manager of Swindon Town, the GMB Union terminated their financial backing of around £4,000-per-season of the club due to Di Canio's fascist views.^[21]

Tattoos

Di Canio has several tattoos including, on his right biceps, the Latin word "DUX", meaning "leader", or Il Duce in Italian, an antonomasia for Benito Mussolini. ^[22] He also has a West Ham United tattoo.^[23]

Club honours

Lazio

Serie B: Promotion 1987–88
Supercoppa Italiana: runner-up 2004

Juventus

Serie A: runner-up 1991–92
Coppa Italia: runner-up 1992
UEFA Cup: Winner 1993

Milan

Celtic

Scottish Premier Division: runner-up 1996–97

West Ham United

UEFA Intertoto Cup: Winner 1999

Career statistics

Player Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1985–86||Lazio||Serie B||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1986–87||Ternana||Serie C2||27||2|||||||||||||||| |- |1987–88||rowspan="3"|Lazio||Serie B||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1988–89||rowspan="2"|Serie A||30||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1989–90||24||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1990–91||rowspan="3"|Juventus||rowspan="3"|Serie A||23||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1991–92||24||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1992–93||31||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1993–94||Napoli||Serie A||26||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1994–95||rowspan="2"|Milan||rowspan="2"|Serie A||15||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1995–96||22||5|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996–97||Celtic||Premier Division||24||12||6||3||1||0||colspan="2"|–||31||15 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997–98||rowspan="2"|Sheffield Wednesday||rowspan="2"|Premier League||35||12||3||0||2||2||colspan="2"|–||40||14 |- |1998–99||6||3||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|–||8||3 |- |1998–99||rowspan="5"|West Ham United||rowspan="5"|Premier League||13||5||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|–||13||5 |- |1999-00||30||16||1||0||4||1||10||1||45||18 |- |2000–01||31||9||3||1||3||1||colspan="2"|–||37||11 |- |2001–02||26||9||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|–||27||9 |- |2002–03||18||9||0||0||1||0||colspan="2"|–||19||9 |- |2003–04||Charlton Athletic||Premier League||31||4||1||0||1||1||colspan="2"|–||33||5 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004–05||rowspan="2"|Lazio||rowspan="2"|Serie A||23||6|||||||||||||||| |- |2005–06||27||5|||||||||||||||| |- |2006–07||rowspan="2"|Cisco Roma||rowspan="2"|Serie C2||28||7|||||||||||||||| |- |2007–08||18||7|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3318||48|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 424||12||6||3||1||0||colspan="2"|–||31||15 Template:Football player statistics 4190||67||9||1||13||5||10||1||222||74 Template:Football player statistics 5532||127|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics end

Manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
Team	Nat	From	To	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win %
Swindon Town		20 May 2011	Current	0	0	0	0	0	0	!—	0	0	0	0	0	0	!—

Notes and references

^ "Di Canio gets 11-match ban for push on ref". BBC Sport. 23 October 1998.
^ "Di Canio ban too short, say referees". BBC Sport. 24 October 1998.
^ "West Ham 2 Wimbledon 1". Sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
^ Raynor, Dominic (2009-10-23). "Paolo Di Canio: Explosive Italian". Soccernet.espn.go.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
^ "Football Tonight". 18:00, 31 December 2009 (UTC). 50 (approx) minutes in. BSkyB. Sky Sports News. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help)
^ "Di Canio wins Fair Play award". BBC News. 2001-12-17. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
^ "Di Canio grabs West Ham lifeline". BBC News. 2003-05-03. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
^ "Birmingham 2 West Ham 2". Sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
^ "Di Canio Smette di giocare, addio alla Cisco Roma". Yahoo! Eurosport Italia. March 10, 2008.
^ "Di Canio wants to be Hammers boss". BBC Sport. 4 September 2008.
^ "Paolo's pride". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
^ "Take your seat in the Di Canio Lounge | News | Latest News | News | West Ham United". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
^ "Di Canio Lounge a hit | News | Latest News | News | West Ham United". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
^ "BBC Sport - Swindon Town confirm Paolo di Canio as new manager". BBC News. 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
^ Fenton, Ben (2005-12-24). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
^ ^a ^b Kassimeris, Christos (2008). European football in black and white: tackling racism in football. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 70. ISBN 0739119605, 9780739119600. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
^ Bar-On, Tamir (2007). Where have all the fascists gone?. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.,. p. 1. ISBN 0754671542, 9780754671541. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
^ Nursey, James (Dec 19, 2005). "Football: ll Di Canio new salute row". The Daily Mirror; London (UK),. Retrieved 28 February 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) ^{[dead link]}
^ Duff, Mark (9 January 2005). "Footballer's 'fascist salute' row". BBC News. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
^ Fenton, Ben (24 Dec 2005). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". Telegraph. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
^ Mokbel, Sami (21 May 2011). "Sponsors cut ties with Swindon over Paolo di Canio's fascist views". Daily Mail. Retrieved 21 May 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^ "Political Football: Paolo Di Canio". www.channel4.com. 26 April 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
^ "I'm on my way to England! Di Canio throws his hat into the ring for West Ham hotseat". www.dailymail.co.uk. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.

External links

Awards
Preceded by Lucas Radebe	FIFA Fair Play Award Winner 2001	Succeeded by Football communities of Japan and Korea Republic
Preceded by Paul Gascoigne	SPFA Players' Player of the Year 1996 - 97 season	Succeeded by Jackie McNamara

Template:Persondata

[1] "Di Canio gets 11-match ban for push on ref". BBC Sport. 23 October 1998.

[2] "Di Canio ban too short, say referees". BBC Sport. 24 October 1998.

[3] "West Ham 2 Wimbledon 1". Sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.

[4] Raynor, Dominic (2009-10-23). "Paolo Di Canio: Explosive Italian". Soccernet.espn.go.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.

[5] "Football Tonight". 18:00, 31 December 2009 (UTC). 50 (approx) minutes in. BSkyB. Sky Sports News. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help)

[6] "Di Canio wins Fair Play award". BBC News. 2001-12-17. Retrieved 2010-05-01.

[7] "Di Canio grabs West Ham lifeline". BBC News. 2003-05-03. Retrieved 2010-05-01.

[8] "Birmingham 2 West Ham 2". Sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.

[9] "Di Canio Smette di giocare, addio alla Cisco Roma". Yahoo! Eurosport Italia. March 10, 2008.

[10] "Di Canio wants to be Hammers boss". BBC Sport. 4 September 2008.

[11] "Paolo's pride". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-05-12.

[12] "Take your seat in the Di Canio Lounge | News | Latest News | News | West Ham United". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-07-17.

[13] "Di Canio Lounge a hit | News | Latest News | News | West Ham United". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-09-13.

[14] "BBC Sport - Swindon Town confirm Paolo di Canio as new manager". BBC News. 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2011-05-20.

[15] Fenton, Ben (2005-12-24). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-05-01.

[Kassimeris-16] Kassimeris, Christos (2008). European football in black and white: tackling racism in football. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 70. ISBN 0739119605, 9780739119600. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

[Bar-On-17] Bar-On, Tamir (2007). Where have all the fascists gone?. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.,. p. 1. ISBN 0754671542, 9780754671541. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

[Nursey-18] Nursey, James (Dec 19, 2005). "Football: ll Di Canio new salute row". The Daily Mirror; London (UK),. Retrieved 28 February 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) ^{[dead link]}

[19] Duff, Mark (9 January 2005). "Footballer's 'fascist salute' row". BBC News. Retrieved 16 February 2010.

[20] Fenton, Ben (24 Dec 2005). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". Telegraph. Retrieved 16 February 2010.

[21] Mokbel, Sami (21 May 2011). "Sponsors cut ties with Swindon over Paolo di Canio's fascist views". Daily Mail. Retrieved 21 May 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

[Tatts-22] "Political Football: Paolo Di Canio". www.channel4.com. 26 April 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2011.

[Tatts2-23] "I'm on my way to England! Di Canio throws his hat into the ring for West Ham hotseat". www.dailymail.co.uk. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.

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