It has been 20 years to the day since Paolo Di Canio scored that volley for West Ham United.
It is 20 years to the day since Paolo Di Canio wowed English football by scoring an incredible volley for West Ham, which is still remembered today.
Joe Cole, who was a young teenager on the bench for West Ham at that time, has interestingly shared that it wasn’t the first time that Di Canio had scored that goal.
The former Hammers academy graduate shared that Di Canio had scored that goal ‘three or four times’ in training and he has never seen a player master such a technique during his years watching the game.
Speaking to The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show on talkSPORT (26/03/20 at 8:45 am), this is what Cole had to say in full about that goal from 20 years ago.
“It’s definitely up there [as one of the Premier League’s greatest ever goals],” Cole told talkSPORT. “It was against, Wimbledon, wasn’t it?!
“Obviously, 20 years ago then I would have been 18, at the time. So, in and out of the team and breaking in. The funny thing is that goal and that technique. He is the only player I have ever seen to master that. He scored that goal in training three or four times.
“The ball used to come over and he used to take flight and connect on the full on the outside of his boot. I have never seen any other player who has got that in their locker.”
West Ham fans would bite your arm off to have a player like Di Canio gracing their turf today because of his quite ridiculous and sublime talents.
Di Canio may have been a handful to manage, but one thing he did do was deliver on the field of play, and his maverick and unpredictable ways is exactly what’s missing, not just for the Hammers, but in today’s game.
Those were the days without social media, but if there was Twitter and such like in those days, then his crazy antics, both on and off the field, would have seemed even crazier.
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