Paolo Di Canio

Italy

He signed for Lazio in 1985 and remained there until 1990. Lazio won promotion to Serie A in 1988, having narrowly escaped relegation to Serie C1 the year before. He finally made his first-team debut in October 1988 and went on to play 30 games during the 1988–89 season. Di Canio scored the winner in the first Rome derby of the season, a goal which contributed to Lazio's survival in Serie A that season and earning him hero status. In 1990, he was sold to another of Italy's biggest clubs, Juventus; although he won the UEFA Cup with the Turin side in 1993, he struggled to gain playing time during his tenure with the club, because of the presence of other forwards and creative midfielders in the team, such as Roberto Baggio, Salvatore Schillaci, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Gianluca Vialli and Andreas Möller. He left Juventus after an "animated exchange" with then manager Giovanni Trapattoni and spent the 1993–94 season with Napoli. Two seasons followed at AC Milan, where, despite winning the Serie A title in 1996, he once again struggled to gain playing time because of heavy competition from his teammates, culminating in another row, this time with Fabio Capello.

Celtic

In July 1996 he joined Celtic in Scotland. In his first season at the club, he scored 15 goals in 37 appearances and won the SPFA Player of the Year award. However, his time in Glasgow was dogged by controversy; he was sent off during a 2–2 draw against Hearts in November…

Di Canio was never capped for Italy at senior level, although at U21 level he earned eleven call-ups and nine caps between 1988 and 1990, scoring twice.

A versatile attacker, Di Canio primarily played as a deep-lying forward, but he could also play as an attacking midfielder, or as a winger. A talented yet controversial player, Di Canio was predominantly known for his creativity, eye for goal, technical ability, and dribbling skills, as well as his quick feet and intelligent play on the pitch, and was described as having "an eye for the spectacular" by The Irish Times in 2001, and as a "mercurial" player by Chris Howie of beIN Sports in 2020; however, he was equally known for being inconsistent and for his temperamental character, as well as his tenacity and aggression on the pitch.

Di Canio was born in Rome, in the district of Quarticciolo, a working-class area populated mainly by Roma fans. However, Di Canio was drawn to their local rivals Lazio. As a young boy, he was addicted to cola and similar drinks and called Pallocca, 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."