If you haven't heard, you either don't follow football or you've been living under a rock for the last month. Paolo Di Canio has been appointed manager of my beloved Swindon Town FC.
If you don't know who Paolo Di Canio is, you don't follow football or you've been living under a rock for the last 13 or so years.
Di Canio made over 500 league appearances and scored over 100 league goals over a professional footballing career that spanned his home country of Italy, Scotland and England. Clubs he's served include Lazio, Juventus, AC Milan, Roma, Celtic, Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham and Charlton.
Despite an impressive career, Di Canio is shrouded in controversy. Following a successful 97-98 Premiership season with Sheffield Wednesday, which saw Di Canio as the club's leading goal scorer and a firm fan favourite, we of course had the infamous "Ref Push". Di Canio pushed referee Paul Alcock over after being red-carded in a match against Arsenal at Hillsborough. This act saw the Italian's name splashed across British tabloids, along with an 11 match ban and £10,000 fine.
Rumour has it that Di Canio was then forced out of the club in an attempt reduce the effect on their reputation. He made a knock-down £1.7m move to West Ham in the January transfer window, even though Wednesday had paid £4.2m just a couple of seasons earlier.
At West Ham, he was a part of the team that achieved an impressive 5th placed finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto Cup. He was voted Player of the Season for the 98-99 season and his volley against Wimbledon in March 2000 is still noted as one of the best in Premier League history.
As if his achievements in our own top flight weren’t enough, 2001 saw Paolo pick up the FIFA Fair Play Award for what was described by FIFA as "a special act of good sportsmanship". During a game against Everton, despite being in a clear goal-scoring opportunity, Di Canio caught the ball from a cross rather than heading home as Everton 'keeper Paul Gerrard lay injured on the floor. (Though admittedly, anything slightly tied to FIFA these days has been tarnished).
However, Di Canio would soon be in the press once more, following his return to Italy to play for Lazio. Many pictures and videos exist of Paolo Di Canio performing the "Roman Salute" as a goal celebration (if it doesn't ring any bells, think Nazi Germany). This coupled with his self-proclamation of being of fascist belief and a keen admiration of Benito Mussolini, the former leader of the National Fascist Party, has English Football Fans split right down the middle on his return to the English game.
But why shouldn't Paolo Di Canio have a crack at football management in our beloved country? The man is one of a long list of great footballers to have graced our English Premiership, but is unfortunately remembered instead for a loss of temper here or a controversial interview there. Paolo has a raw passion for football and winning, and as an STFC supporter, I think this is just what we need following our disastrous last season.
No, this doesn't mean I have fascist beliefs, far from it. But apart from the saluting in Lazio, Di Canio's right-wing views haven't otherwise influenced his footballing game. I might add, Italian football has a huge right-wing following, including the infamous "Ultras". These top Italian clubs are not stopped from participating in European competitions and Italian footballers are not stopped from representing their nation at International tournaments, so why shouldn’t Paolo Di Canio manage Swindon?
Sure, the English game has long pushed the message of “Let’s kick racism out of Football”, but until Di Canio walks out of the Swindon boardroom, sacks everybody that doesn’t agree with his beliefs and turns Swindon Town Football Club into some sort of right-wing fascist movement or propaganda machine, English football has no right to kick him out. After all, we shouldn’t hate on others because of their race, belief or colour of their skin right? Or do two wrongs make a right now?
Let the man do his job, yeah there’ll be controversy along the way, the press will talk, but he may just be the man to get Swindon moving in the right direction and back to the Championship where we belong.
Forza STFC!
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