Paolo Di Canio insists “I don’t have racism in me”, but claims Benito Mussolini “did some good things” and won’t remove his DUX tattoo.
The former striker was sacked as a Sky Italia pundit in September last year after his bicep tattoo, a tribute to ‘Il Duce’ was visible on TV.
“It was still summer, I was wearing a polo shirt,” Di Canio said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
Paolo Di Canio insists “I don’t have racism in me”, but claims Benito Mussolini “did some good things” and won’t remove his DUX tattoo.
The former striker was sacked as a Sky Italia pundit in September last year after his bicep tattoo, a tribute to ‘Il Duce’ was visible on TV.
“It was still summer, I was wearing a polo shirt,” Di Canio said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
“We had to shoot a promo video. If I’d been wearing a suit then this whole thing would never have happened. That’s life.
“When it happened? I felt wounded pride, I didn’t even know what social networks were. I felt like a leper. I got on the first Frecciarossa to Rome.
“There were no seats, I told the guard that I was paying the maximum fare and yet I was standing just to go home. I wondered what I’d done to deserve such a thing.
“The young Di Canio would have reacted differently, but now I’m almost 50. I’ve learned to put myself in the other person’s shoes, to reason with them.
“There are many people who have the right to be offended by the display – however unintentional – of these tattoos. And a big company like Sky has the right to not be associated with symbols they don’t share.
“It wasn’t my choice though, and I’m still paying the consequences today.”
Di Canio has openly admitted to being a fascist in the past, and gave a fascist salute during his time at Lazio…
“The salute under the Curva Nord is the thing I regret most in my career. It’s sport, it’s stupid to make a political gesture which could be shared by some and offensive to many others.
“I should never have done that, sport should stay out of certain things.
“Why did I do it more than once [at Torino and Livorno]? To provoke, out of anger. They threw stones from the stands, they sang songs with terrifying insults against my parents.
“I said I was sorry, not that I’m a saint.
“Am I still a fascist? I’d rather avoid labels. I’ve always explained my thinking, it’s not a mystery. But if you ask me about racial laws, anti-Semitism and supporting Hitler, these things make me shudder.
“I could have said that [that I was a fascist] in the past, but always with these distinctions. And now I realise that for some people who have suffered certain things, that can never be enough.
“I believed in a social right, but I was never a card-carrier.
“Mussolini? There’s a before and after. He did some good things, but when he followed Hitler with the racial laws that all ends.
“I got the tattoo in 2000, in Bologna. I was playing in England and I was recovering from an injury.
“For me Mussolini represented the idea of a society with rules which everyone respects. Love and patriotic pride. Things I wanted for my country and which I can’t see even now.
“My three brothers vote on the left. My father Ignazio was a Roman stonemason, the Nazis shot at him for stealing cheese. When San Lorenzo was bombed he went around with his cart to give what little he had to the homeless.
“Look at Trevor Sinclair, the genius of Shaka Hislop who ended his career as a goalkeeper to become a nuclear engineer. Chris Powell. Teammates, friends, lads of colour.
“Phil Spencer, my English agent, is a practising Jew; I was at his son’s Bar Mitzvah. I don’t have racism inside me, it doesn’t belong to me.”
The former West Ham striker wrote to Jewish leaders in November looking to explain himself, why?
“I was at home, with dark thoughts and sadness,” Di Canio explains.
“My wife told me that Ludovico, our eldest daughter who is studying in London, was suffering very badly, even if she was trying to hide it because she loves me.
“I wondered what I could do, to explain my thoughts once and for all. It was the Jewish community who were most affected by my involuntary display. I can only bow my head in front of them, so I picked up a pen and paper.
“I hope to be given a chance, for people to understand who I really am. I have strengths and weaknesses, but they’re far from the photos with my arm [the salute].
“My first thought is for the survivors of the concentration camps who I met, then for young people who carry out their ideas. They should be proud of that, provided they respect the ideas of others too.
“I can’t convince everyone, I know there are some labels which will never go away. But I carry my head high, my daughters know who I am.
“Will I remove the tattoos? No, that would be hypocrisy. A leftist friend once told me that they’re now linked to the romance and idealism of youth. Maybe it’s not that.
“What I carry on me are symbols of what I’ve been, of what I’ve done. Including mistakes.”