Paolo Di Canio represented Celtic during the mid-nineties.
Paolo Di Canio has stated that he had a ‘fantastic’ time during his days at Celtic and joked that he struggled up in Glasgow because it was his first experience abroad and he ‘didn’t speak one word in Scottish’.
At any given moment, Di Canio had the capability of producing the sublime, and then moments later the absolutely ridiculous.
Whilst Celtic supporters only witnessed his magic for a year, he did bring that down to England for a much longer period.
As broadcast on The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show on talkSPORT (18/03/20 at 6:15 am), Di Canio labelled Celtic as one of those clubs with an ‘incredible’ history and ‘incredible’ fans.
“In the way, I live my life, I give everything for myself,” Di Canio told talkSPORT. “So, I am a romantic person. In some way, I am a believer in others. It’s not only my quality, it’s maybe I was lucky to play for clubs with incredible history and incredible fans.
“In some way, it’s obvious that I had a fantastic period there. Once again only one year, but the relationship between me and the people was amazing. But, especially in a social life, day after day, not only talking about football because it was my first experience abroad.
“I didn’t speak one word in Scottish. In Italy, we have got 20 regions and 20 different languages – For me, it was difficult, but the people were amazing to me and my family to try and integrate ourselves into that community. That was a fantastic moment and period of my life.”
Every football team up and down the land would want a player like Di Canio, not just on the pitch, but off the field of play also.
Di Canio was a controversial figure before social media, so it has to be questioned how he would have been seen in today’s world.
But one thing is for sure, compared to today’s colourful characters in the game, Di Canio at least delivered time and time again.
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