SAINT PAOLO

Few players ever told Sir Alex Ferguson to “f**k off” and got away with it. But when the Manchester United manager calls you up on Christmas Day out of the blue, what’s a guy supposed to do? With Paolo Di Canio, though, there’s usually a simple explanation.

The Italian required plenty of them in a career littered with hot-headed outbursts and tittersome flashpoints. Yet there was one common thread which ran throughout: the infectious passion which made him a terrace hero no matter where he went in British football, having joined Celtic from Milan for £1 million in July 1996.

These days, Di Canio works as a pundit and commentator on Premier League matches for Sky Italia, and lives a quieter life in the Olgiata district of Rome’s countryside. Not that he wouldn’t leap at the chance to return as a manager, mind you, after dugout spells at Swindon and Sunderland. When FFT picks up the phone to let the 53-year-old know of our cult heroes special, he’s all too happy to reminisce on the happiest period of his life.

“Let’s say that my homeland is Italy, but honestly my first football homeland is England,” he beams. “Although I was born here, probably in another life I was English.”

The feelings are mutual, especially at the first two Premier League clubs that Di Canio represented. During six campaigns with Sheffield Wednesday and West Ham, Di Canio’s personality, panache and sporadic ref rage illuminated stadia across the land – but Scotland was first on the receiving end…

“I WANTED TO TAKE HIM…”

Di Canio ended his solitary season at Celtic with the Scotland PFA Player of the Year prize – received in full Highland regalia, naturally – after scoring 15 goals in 37 games. As debut seasons go, it was rather good… if you ignore everything that happened around it.

In a campaign where Rangers collected their ninth consecutive title and won all four Old Firm league encounters for the