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| The 35-year-old Italian will probably be remembered as one of the most creative, most magical, most charismatic and most passionate midfielders in Premiership in the 90s and probably the most popular Hammer since the Trevor Brooking era. The Roman born player started his career almost 20 years ago at Lazio. He also played for Ternana, Juventus, Napoli and Milan before he came to Celtic in 1996. Di Canio had a great first season at Celtic, scoring 12 times at 26 appearances, and will be remembered for his outstanding goal against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup. He was voted Scottish Player of the Year by his fellow professionals. He moved to Sheffield Wednesday and after one good season with the ***** in November 1998 while playing against Arsenal he lost his nerve and pushed referee Paul Alcock and got himself a 11-match ban. He seemed to have no future in English football, however in January 1999 Harry Redknapp took the high-risk striker to Upton Park for £1.7m. An absolute revelation Paolo scored 5 times in 13 appearances in his first season with the Hammers. He continue to prove to be a huge a success as hardly a match went by without Paolo doing something magical or just unbelievable. Hit the headlines when he made an extraordinarily sporting catch of a crossed ball with the goal at his mercy in the dying minutes of a game when he could see the keeper down injured. Once again when he hit a stunning volley against Wimbledon on March 26, 2000. The goal was later voted the Goal of the Season. With the departure of Harry Redknapp, Paolo`s problems started to reappear. He was linked with the moves to Man Utd and Fulham, but insisted that he wanted to finish his career at Upton Park. The new manager, Glenn Roeder left Di Canio out of the squad for many crucial games in the 2002-03 campaign when the Hammers where fighting to avoid relegation. It was only when Trevor Brooking took temporary charge at the end of the campaign that Di Canio came back into the side, but by then even he could not stop the Hammers from being relegated. His contact expired and in the summer of 2003 he joined Charlton on a one-year contract. [December 2003] |
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DI CANIO
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SCO