Paolo Di Canio

By Craig · Published 31 October 2026

Paolo Di Canio pushed a referee to the ground in 1998 and won a FIFA Fair Play award in 2001. In between he scored a goal later voted the greatest ever seen at the Boleyn Ground. Few players in Premier League history were harder to predict, and fewer still were harder to take your eyes off.

Clubs

Lazio, Juventus, Napoli, Milan, Celtic, Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham, Charlton, Lazio, Cisco Roma

Premier League

190 appearances, 66 goals

Honours

UEFA Cup with Juventus, Serie A with Milan, Hammer of the Year 2000, FIFA Fair Play Award 2001

International

No senior caps, nine for Italy Under-21s

Fantasy price

£9.5m in 1999/00

How he arrived

Di Canio came to England from Celtic, signing for Sheffield Wednesday in August 1997 for around £4.2m. He was their top scorer in his first season, with 14 goals in all competitions.

Then came September 1998. Sent off at home to Arsenal, he pushed the referee, Paul Alcock, who fell to the ground. The FA banned him for 11 matches and fined him £10,000, and he didn't play for Wednesday again.

Most managers wouldn't have touched him. Harry Redknapp did, signing him for West Ham in January 1999 for £1.5m and admitting he was taking a chance.

The moment: Wimbledon, 26 March 2000

It came early in a game West Ham would win 2-1. Trevor Sinclair swung a diagonal cross in from near the right touchline. Di Canio didn't control it. He jumped and hit it first time, a scissor volley with the outside of his right foot, back across Neil Sullivan and into the corner.

On commentary Martin Tyler called it "sensational, even by his standards". It was voted the BBC's Goal of the Season, and when West Ham left the Boleyn Ground in 2016 it was named the greatest goal ever scored there.

The moment: Everton, December 2000

Nine months later he did something just as rare. Late in a game against Everton, with their goalkeeper Paul Gerrard down injured, a cross came to Di Canio in the box. Instead of playing on, he caught the ball and stopped play. It earned him FIFA's Fair Play Award.

Why the streets won't forget

Because West Ham fans got the whole of him, not just the volley. In four and a half seasons he scored 47 league goals for the club, 16 of them in 1999/00, and won Hammer of the Year in 2000. He played with a showman's flair and a short fuse in equal measure. Redknapp's gamble paid off many times over.

His last weeks at the club summed him up. With West Ham fighting relegation in 2003, he scored the winner against Chelsea in the penultimate game, then an 89th-minute equaliser at Birmingham on the final day. It wasn't enough. West Ham went down, he was released, and he spent one more Premier League season at Charlton.

The same man pushed a referee over and stopped play with his hands rather than take advantage of an injured keeper. That contradiction is why people still argue about him, and the volley is why he still turns up in lists of the Premier League's best goals.

Where is he now

Di Canio went home to Lazio in 2004 and retired in 2008 after a spell at Cisco Roma. His second spell at Lazio was overshadowed by fascist salutes to the club's right-wing supporters, which brought a ban and a fine, and in 2005 he described himself as "a fascist, not a racist".

He moved into management in England, winning League Two with Swindon in 2011/12 before resigning in February 2013, then lasted six months at Sunderland. He has since worked as a pundit on Italian television.

Which seasons can you draft him in?

Seven. The game lists him at West Ham for 1998/99, the season he joined them in January after the ban.

Want him in your retro fantasy football team? Pick him in 1999/00, the season of the volley and 16 league goals, for £9.5m.