Paolo Di Canio

Paolo Di Canio

Personal information
Full name	Paolo Di Canio
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Striker

Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian football player who currently plays for Italian Serie C2 club Cisco Roma.

Biography and career

Paolo Di Canio was born in Rome, in the district of Quarticciolo.

He signed for Lazio, playing for his city, in 1985: here he remained until 1990, moving to one 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 Premiership as he joined Sheffield Wednesday. Whilst in Sheffield, Paolo became the club's leading goal scorer for the 1997-98 season and in scoring 14 goals 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 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 form a cross instead while the Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was lying injured on the ground after colliding heavily with another West Ham player on the right flank. FIFA described the act as "a special act of good sportsmanship." He remained at West Ham until 2003 when, following a very public row with Manager Glenn Roeder and West Ham's relegation, he signed for Charlton Athletic.

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 play with the economically stressed team. Lazio fans saw his return as an important chapter for Lazio, happy to finally have a real Rome-bred Lazio supporter within the team, something that hadn't taken place since the departure of Alessandro Nesta. He made history scoring again in the Rome derby just as he had done fifteen years prior, leading the team to a memorable victory ending 3-1. Di Canio, always a fan favorite, played two seasons with Lazio before leaving the team in July 2006, to the supporters' dismay. Problems with the president of the club Claudio Lotito marked his entire period with Lazio, which resulted in the player joining Cisco Roma of Serie C2 in a shocking free transfer, consolidating a pre-existing tension between a big part of the supporters and the president.

Controversies

Di Canio has had a chequered career, in which time he has won many honors, but also been the center of much controversy, such as when he pushed over a referee after being sent off in a match against Arsenal when he was still with Sheffield Wednesday, and in particular more recently, for making random Fascist salutes. After making a salute in a match against Juventus in December 2005, he was suspended for one game by the Italian Football Federation and fined 10,000 Euros. He is known to be outspoken and passionate, and is famous for his on- and off-field flair. He is also known to have been part of the Ultras fan group (Lazio's Irriducibili) in his youth and even traveled with the group to away matches, which is quite uncommon among professional football players.

After criticism from politicians for his behavior, he stated that he would,"always salute as I did yesterday because it gives me a sense of belonging to my people." Di Canio also has a tattoo on his arm which reads "DVX", which is the Latin appellative used for former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Duce. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, stated that the salute "did not have any meaning" and described the player as 'an exhibitionist but a good lad'. His own team though, Lazio, distanced themselves from his actions, claiming that they rejected the "politicization" of football in anyway. Di Canio initially refused to apologize for his actions and claimed that he did not intend to make a political statement. He insisted that he is free to communicate with his fans in whichever way he pleases, though the Italian constitution considers Fascist propaganda to be illegal. These events sparked a series of debates throughout the country, comparing the difference in the perception of the far right and left. Di Canio amended his earlier remarks and claimed that he is "a fascist, not a racist. The salute is aimed at my people. With the straight arm I don't want to incite violence and certainly not racial hatred." He later denied ever having made that comment which was attributed to his lawyer. Later yet, Di Canio agreed to stop using this controversial gesture, in order to avoid any problem this might cause to Lazio. Ultimately Di Canio proved to be more trouble than he was worth, and Lazio's management decided not to renew his contract at the end of the 2005-2006 season. After his release he signed for Serie C2 side, Cisco Roma.

The movie

In the September 1999 Paolo Di Canio acted in a short film called Strade Parallele[1] produced by director Luca Borri. He plays the part of an ever ready young man up to the challenge.

External links

• FootballDatabase provides Paolo Di Canio's profile and stats