Paul Peschisolido

Early years

Peschisolido was born in Scarborough, now part of Toronto, Ontario. He began his professional playing career when still a high-schooler with Archbishop Denis O'Connor Catholic High School in Ajax. Peschisolido led the team to OFSAA finals in his last year then moved on as a trainee with the Toronto Blizzard of the Canadian Soccer League, where he was named the "Rookie of the Year" in 1989. He also played the 1990–91 Major Indoor Soccer League season with the Kansas City Comets, being named the league's 'Newcomer of the Year'.

Birmingham City

After spending a year with the Juventus academy, returning homesick saw him offered the opportunity from his former national youth team coach Tony Taylor to join Birmingham City for £25,000 in November 1992. He was joint top scorer in each of his two seasons with the club.

Stoke City

In August 1994, he moved on to Stoke City in a £400,000 plus player exchange deal involving Dave Regis. He was top scorer with 15 goals for the 1994–95 season, and remained at Stoke until March 1996, when he returned to Birmingham until the end of the 1995–96 season, scoring once in nine appearances.

West Bromwich Albion

Peschisolido signed for West Bromwich Albion in a £600,000 deal in July 1996. He made his first appearance for the club in the 3–1 home League Cup defeat to Colchester United on 3 September 1996. Four days later, Peschisolido scored just nine minutes into his Albion league debut, as the…

Peschisolido played in all of Canada's three games at the 1987 FIFA U-16 World Championship which were held in Canada. He earned seven caps at the U-17 level, six caps at the U-20 level scoring two goals, and 12 caps at the U-23 level scoring five goals. He made his senior national team debut for Canada on 13 June 1992 in a match against Hong Kong at Varsity Stadium where he scored his first international goal. Peschisolido formed effective striker partnerships for Canada with Alex Bunbury and Carlo Corazzin over their years with the national team. Peschisolido scored the majority of his international goals between 1995 and 1996 at Commonwealth Stadium that included a number of World Cup qualification matches which led to the venue becoming lovingly nicknamed St. Paul's Cathedral amongst the Canadian fans and press. He scored his last international goal on his 50th cap on 13 June 2004 in a World Cup qualification match against Belize, exactly 12 years to the day from his first international goal and first cap. He earned a total of 53 caps from 1992 to 2004, and scored 10 goals making him tied 9th with Tomasz Radzinski in all-time scoring for Canada. He represented Canada in four FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns (1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006) in 26 FIFA World Cup qualification matches He played in the Canadian squad that won the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup and played in all of Canada's three games at the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup. His final international cap was on 4…

On 15 January 2009, he was appointed as Jeff Kenna's assistant coach at League of Ireland club St Patrick's Athletic. Both Kenna and Peschisolido registered as players for the 2009 season in case of emergency. On 15 May 2009, he resigned from this post for "personal reasons" with immediate effect. Three days later, on 18 May 2009, he was appointed head coach of Burton Albion taking over from caretaker coach Roy McFarland, who had taken the club to promotion to League Two after the departure of Nigel Clough. Peschisolido was in charge of Burton for almost three years but was dismissed on 17 March 2012, following a winless run of 14 games.

In 1995, Peschisolido married Karren Brady, who was at the time managing director of Birmingham City F.C. The couple have two children, daughter Sophia and son Paolo. Peschisolido is a cousin of former National Hockey League (NHL) player Mike Ricci.