Blast from the Past no.58: Danny Dichio

The relentless physical and mental demands of being a professional sportsperson often have the effect of sapping all but the barest remnants of personality from the athlete in question. It’s essentially why most tennis players, cricketers, javelin throwers, footballers, snookerists and other successful sporty types tend to be a bit boring when you speak to them. But some people are just born cool – athlete or not – and not even a social life decimated by a brutal training schedule can tame them. Daniele “Danny” Dichio is one of those people.

From the moment he burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old centre-forward with Queens Park Rangers in the mid-1990s, with his long mane of rock star hair and his fancy Italian name, it was clear this strapping west London lad had something about him.

At first, it seemed it might be goalscoring prowess. Forming a strike partnership with fellow youth team product Kevin Gallen, Dichio scored on his league debut against Aston Villa. Following the departure of “Sir” Les Ferdinand, for a few weeks in the 1995/96 Premiership season Rangers fans were living the dream of having two promising homegrown products leading the line.

But after smashing in six goals in four games in an autumn purple patch, Dichio only added three more for the rest of the season. Rangers were relegated, so Dichio he did what he had always done in times of trouble. He hit the decks – the mixing decks.

It’s a little-known fact that of all Premier League footballers, Dichio is the most accomplished at DJing. Cutting his teeth in the pirate radio scene in the early 90s, he went by the moniker of DJ Mellow D. (Which you realise, when you say it out loud and think for a couple of seconds, is a quite outstanding pun.)

One Rs fan who claimed to have spent time with Dichio “on a Club 18/30 holiday in Magaluf in ’92” confirmed that the striker was “into all the things going on in the early 90s rave scene”.

It was this fun-loving earthiness that endeared Dichio to Rangers fans more than his goals. A boyhood Rs supporter, he became known as the Hammersmith Horse. Not because he played like a donkey, but because he was born in Hammersmith and he was a loveable Italian stallion.

His demeanour on the pitch, unsurprisingly for such a smooth customer, could best be described as nonchalant.

“He had a good eye for goal if the ball fell at his feet, although he always looked like he needed a rocket up his proverbial to get him moving,” said one fan on the We Are the Rangers Boys forum.

“I’ve never seen a player jog round a pitch in such a laid-back fashion before or since,” commented another.

Although Rangers’ Premiership glory days were behind them following the drop, Dichio had his moments in the second tier.

He once came off the bench against Port Vale, with Rangers losing 4-0 with 30 minutes left, and inspired a ludicrous comeback to bring the game back to 4-4.

But Dichio’s finest moment in a Rangers shirt – and perhaps the finest moment by any footballer in the world ever – was a jaw-droppingly gorgeous 35-yard volley against Wolves at Molineux in 1997.

It was possibly on the strength of this wonderstrike alone that Dichio earned a move to Italian giants Sampdoria in one of the most unlikely transfers of a generation.

The less said about Dichio’s spell in Serie A the better. In fact it’s difficult to gauge his form for Sampdoria because he only played for them twice. An Italian-language article on the subject – which when uploaded to Google Translate features the phrases “blatant blunders”, “he set foot in Italy by only illegal” and “poor English footballer” – probably tells us all we need to know.

After a similarly unsuccessful loan spell at Lecce, Dichio returned to England with Sunderland, where his coolness quickly won over the Mackem fans.

“He used to do DJ sets in the Palace nightclub and give out lots of highfives,” recalled one Black Cats fan on the Ready to Go forum.

On the pitch, Dichio was deployed mainly as a back-up striker to fellow beanpole Niall Quinn during a golden period for the club under Peter Reid.

He remains popular despite a couple of famous errors – the first a glaring miss in the dramatic 1998 play-off final defeat to Charlton, the second gifting a goal to West Ham that prevented the Wearsiders going top of the Premier League for the first and only time.

“He was always capable of an absolute shocker of a miss but chipped in with a decent amount of goals for a bit -part player,” said one Sunderland fan.

“He was a determined and bustly striker and the fans warmed to him because he always gave 100 per cent,” agreed another.

After leaving the Stadium of Light, Dichio scored almost as many goals against Sunderland as he had for them – netting for Millwall, West Brom and Preston in games versus the Black Cats.

But it was when he moved to Toronto FC in 2007 that Dichio finally found a home that was as cool as him.

In three seasons with the Canadian club, he became one of its greatest ever legends (to be fair the club was only formed the year he joined, but it’s still impressive).

Dichio scored Toronto’s first ever MLS goal (a feat marked in every match to this day by the club’s fans, who sing a special song for him in the 24th minute) and, since retiring, he has become one of Canada’s most respected TV football pundits. A bit like the North American Gary Neville (but cooler).

Sadly, Danny’s DJing days are behind him. As he once lamented, “The trouble is that football and DJing aren’t compatible – the healthy life and the late nightclub life.” Sadder still, in a 2010 interview he revealed that his favourite band “at the moment” were Mumford and Sons. Aged 42, the Hammersmith Horse has finally been tamed.

Follow @darlingkevin on Twitter

READ MORE

No.1: Hassan Kachloul
No.2: Joe-Max Moore
No.3: Titi Camara
No.4: Regi Blinker
No.5: Hamilton Ricard
No.6: Shaun Bartlett
No.7: Roque Junior
No.8: Stefan Schwarz
No.9: Andy Impey
No.10: Magnus Hedman
No.11: Danny Tiatto
No.12: Dejan Stefanovic
No.13: Darren Eadie
No.14: Facundo Sava
No.15: Alpay
No.16: Jostein Flo
No.17: Per Frandsen
No.18: Geoff Horsfield
No.19: Aki Riihilahti
No.20: Temuri Ketsbaia
No.21: Willem Korsten
No.22: Nordin Wooter
No.23: Samassi Abou
No.24: Jason Lee
No.25: David Lee
No.26: Finidi George
No.27: Paul Warhurst
No.28: Henri Camara
No.29: Francis Benali
No.30: Daniel Amokachi
No.31: Emerson
No.32: Igor Biscan
No.33: Bruno Ribeiro
No.34: Kiki Musampa
No.35: Horacio Carbonari
No.36: Karl Ready
No.37: The Zenith Data Systems Cup
No.38: John Jensen
No.38: Karel Poborsky
No.39: Paul Bosvelt
No.40: Stelios Giannakopoulos
No 41: Ulises de la Cruz
No 42: Cobi Jones
No.43: Jose Dominguez
No.44: Barry Hayles
No.45: Marc Hottiger
No.46: Alan Kimble
No.47: Stan Lazaridis
No.48: Radostin Kishishev
No.49: Tony Yeboah
No.50: Bryan Roy
No.51: Corrado Grabbi
No.52: Chris Kiwomya
No.53: Frank Sinclair
No.54: Jeremy Goss
No.55: Djimi Traore
No.56: Massimo Maccarone
No.57: Francis Jeffers