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Paolo Di Canio

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wavy (talk | contribs) at 17:13, 23 December 2011 (→Fascist politics: Added link to the Indie interview where the 'idiocy of racism' and samurai stuff comes from). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Paolo Di Canio
Di Canio at Upton Park, September 2010
Personal information
Full name Paolo Dickanio
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 Apps (Gls)
1985–1990 Lazio 54 (4)
1986–1987 → Ternana (loan) 27 (2)
1990–1993 Juventus 78 (6)
1993–1994 Napoli 26 (5)
1994–1996 Milan 37 (6)
1996–1997 Celtic 24 (12)
1997–1999 Sheffield Wednesday 41 (15)
1999–2003 West Ham United 118 (48)
2003–2004 Charlton Athletic 31 (4)
2004–2006 Lazio 50 (11)
2006–2008 Cisco Roma 46 (14)
Total 532 (127)
International career
1988–1990 Italy U-21 9 (2)
Managerial career
2011– Swindon Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is a Italian former professional footballer and current manager of League Two side Swindon Town. Di Canio made over 500 league appearances and scored over 100 league goals as a player.

As a player Di Canio played in Serie A for Lazio, Juventus, Napoli and AC Milan, before playing in the Scottish Premier League for Celtic and the English Premier League for Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Charlton Athletic.

After his seasons in the Premier League he returned to Italy where he played for Lazio, Ternana and Cisco Roma before retiring in 2008.

Career

Di Canio was born in Rome, in the district of Quarticciolo. A working-class area of Rome , overwhelmingly populated by Roma fans, Di Canio was nevertheless drawn to Lazio. As a small boy he was addicted to Cola and similar drinks and called Palloca, 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." [1] He signed for Lazio in 1985 and remained there until 1990, when he was sold to another of Italy's biggest clubs, Juventus. He left Juventus "after an animated exchange with then manager Giovanni Trapattoni" and spent the 1993-94 season with Napoli. Two seasons followed at A.C. Milan, culminating in a row with Capello.[2] 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 when 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[3] and him being fined £10,000.[4]

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,[5] which is still considered among the best goals in Premiership history[6] and was named as the Premiership's goal of the decade in a December 2009 Sky Sports News viewers' poll, scoring 30% of votes.[7] 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."[8]

Sir Alex Ferguson tried to sign him for Manchester United halfway through the 2001-02 season, but his attempts were unsuccessful and Di Canio would remain in East London for another season and a half.[9]

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.[10] 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.[11] 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 club president and majority shareholder, Claudio Lotito, with whom he already had a difficult relationship. As a result, Di Canio's contract was not renewed in the summer of 2006. During several of his games for Lazio, Di Canio made a fascist salute to their 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.

Paolo Di Canio at the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park, 11 September 2010

On March 10, 2008, Di Canio announced his retirement from football, ending his 23-year playing 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14] 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,[15] which was formally launched by the unveiling of a plaque by Di Canio himself, on 11 September 2010.[16]

Managerial career

Di Canio has a UEFA Pro Licence for coaching. On 20 May 2011 Di Canio was appointed manager of Swindon Town, following the club's relegation to League Two. Di Canio began his career as a manager with a emphatic 3-0 win over Crewe on the 6 August 2011.[17] On 30 August 2011, Di Canio was involved in a pitch-side altercation with Swindon striker Leon Clarke, after their defeat in the League Cup to Southampton.[18]

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.[19]

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.[20] Di Canio received a one match game ban after the second event and was fined €7,000,[21] 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."[22] His salute has been featured on unofficial merchandise sold outside Stadio Olimpico after the ban.[20] Di Canio has also expressed admiration for Mussolini.[23][24] 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.[25]

One source, quoted in a 2011 article, who knows Di Canio well has said; " Paolo is not, and has never been [-] an ideological fascist. Certain things he has done -like the salute with the Lazio fans-have to do with his psychological history, particularly his former compulsive tendencies and pronounced mood swings." While in Italy , his column in the Corriere del Sport often took the form of writing against the idiocy of racism. Di Canio has many Italian friends who are Socialists and he has said; "I don't vote, I haven't voted for 14 years. Italian politicians-all of them- think only about themselves, and making money." [26]

The journalist Robert Chalmers noted in a 2011 article that Di Canio spoke 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.[27]

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.[28] He also has a West Ham United tattoo on his left upper arm.[29]

Di Canio has stated that he will get a Swindon tattoo if he guides Swindon to win the League in his first season in charge.[citation needed] [30]

Club honours

Lazio
Juventus
Milan
Celtic
West Ham United

Career statistics

Club

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 From To Record
G W D L Win %
Swindon Town 11 May 2011 Present 28 16 5 7 057.14
Total 28 16 5 7 057.14

Notes and references

  1. ^ The Independent on Sunday, 11 December 2011 [1]
  2. ^ The Independent on Sunday, 11 December 2011
  3. ^ "Di Canio gets 11-match ban for push on ref". BBC Sport. 23 October 1998.
  4. ^ "Di Canio ban too short, say referees". BBC Sport. 24 October 1998.
  5. ^ "West Ham 2 Wimbledon 1". Sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  6. ^ Raynor, Dominic (2009-10-23). "Paolo Di Canio: Explosive Italian". Soccernet.espn.go.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  7. ^ "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)
  8. ^ "Di Canio wins Fair Play award". BBC News. 2001-12-17. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  9. ^ [2]
  10. ^ "Di Canio grabs West Ham lifeline". BBC News. 2003-05-03. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  11. ^ "Birmingham 2 West Ham 2". Sportinglife.com. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  12. ^ "Di Canio Smette di giocare, addio alla Cisco Roma". Yahoo! Eurosport Italia. March 10, 2008.
  13. ^ "Di Canio wants to be Hammers boss". BBC Sport. 4 September 2008.
  14. ^ "Paolo's pride". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  15. ^ "Take your seat in the Di Canio Lounge | News | Latest News | News | West Ham United". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
  16. ^ "Di Canio Lounge a hit | News | Latest News | News | West Ham United". Whufc.com. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  17. ^ "BBC Sport - Swindon Town confirm Paolo di Canio as new manager". BBC News. 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  18. ^ "Time called on Clarke". www.swindoadvertiser.co.uk. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2011-09-01.
  19. ^ Fenton, Ben (2005-12-24). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  20. ^ 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)
  21. ^ 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)
  22. ^ 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]
  23. ^ Duff, Mark (9 January 2005). "Footballer's 'fascist salute' row". BBC News. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  24. ^ Fenton, Ben (24 Dec 2005). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". Telegraph. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  25. ^ 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)
  26. ^ Independent on Sunday, 11 December 2011
  27. ^ Independent on Sunday, 11 December 2011
  28. ^ "Political Football: Paolo Di Canio". www.channel4.com. 26 April 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  29. ^ "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.
  30. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15847936.stm
Awards
Preceded by FIFA Fair Play Award Winner
2001 		Succeeded by
Football communities of
Japan and Korea Republic
Preceded by SPFA Players' Player of the Year
1996 - 97 season 		Succeeded by

Template:Persondata

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