'Paolo Di Canio walked out of dressing room and drove home after not being named in team'

Known for a quick temper, and even quicker feet, Paolo Di Canio was often the first name on the teamsheet for West Ham, but Jermain Defoe recalled the time that wasn't the case- Paolo was having none of it.

Having donned the strips of almost every Italian giant in the 1990s, Paolo Di Canio joined West Ham in 1999 under Harry Redknapp and enjoyed a five-year-stint in east London.

He arrived off the back of his altercation with referee Paul Alcock, whom he pushed to the ground after a sending-off whilst playing for Sheffield Wednesday, which resulted in an 11-match ban.

The former Sunderland gaffer's temper continued to flare with the Hammers, and his then-strike partner Jermain Defoe told of the time he hopped in his car after being dropped, and went off home.

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Speaking on The Players Channel, Defoe revealed just how the Italian reacted after manager Glenn Roeder ousted him from the starting XI on the back of an injury.

Defoe said: “I was young at West Ham and Paolo Di Canio was sort of like coming towards the back end of his career at this point. It was me, Les Ferdinand and him.

“Paolo got injured, and he went to Italy for about a month to get treatment. No one knew. He was just gone. But it’s Paolo. What are you going to say to him, right?”

Much like his aura here, Di Canio's kung-fu volley against Wimbledon in 2000 left everyone gobsmacked and is touted as one of the goals of the decade.

Defoe added: “So, me and Les are playing, Glenn Roeder was the manager, and Paolo’s come back - ‘I’m Paolo Di Canio, I’m playing.’ On the Friday we were playing against Leeds, so Les got his boots.

"He knocked on Glenn Roeder’s door, put his boots on his desk, and said, ‘If Paolo plays tomorrow, that’s me done,’ Les was 39 at the time. He went ‘I don’t need this, me and JD are playing.’

“Glenn goes, ‘No, no, no Les, you two are playing. Paolo won’t play tomorrow. He will be on the bench.' We come into the changing rooms, and we’re all sitting there; you could see Glenn was nervous. So, he’s flipped the chart back- Ferdinand, Defoe up front.”

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West Ham was where a young Defoe made a name for himself, netting almost 30 times for the club, and he went on the become the Premier League's ninth highest scorer.

He added: “The manager's finished, Paolo’s there, and everyone's looking at him; he’s never been dropped before; he’s a West Ham legend. Glenn did his talk, and then as he’s finished, because it’s Paolo, you think, how's he going to react? You think, at worst, he’s going to pull the manager for a chat.

“But he goes, ‘Paolo Di Canio, don’t sit on the bench.’ He got up, walked out, gone. Everyone thought surely he was going to come back, but he was in his car, and he’d gone home. He came in Monday morning normally!”