Former Juventus and AC Milan forward Paolo Di Canio reveals his big Sheffield Wednesday regret

Paolo Di Canio says he still regrets the way his Sheffield Wednesday career ended. The Italian maverick was sold to West Ham United in 1999 after completing an 11-match ban for pushing referee Paul Alcock to the ground in the Owls' win over Arsenal.

The skilful forward was sent off and fined £10,000 for sparking a melee at Hillsborough and never played for Wednesday again after his shoving episode. Di Canio was flogged to the Hammers in a cut-price £1.5m deal.

Speaking to ITV, Di Canio said: "Everybody knows what happened. I left in not a very natural and normal way so for this I still have some regrets. For this I always look in a positive way to this because I hope the fans are going to have what they deserve."

Sheffield Wednesday's task for next season is crystal clear as big summer of change looms

Di Canio, who arrived at S6 via spells at Lazio, Juventus, Napoli, AC Milan and Celtic, notched 17 goals in 48 Owls appearances. "The period I had there they were in the Premier League so I hope to one day see Sheffield Wednesday in the Premier League," he added.

Di Canio turned out for his old club in a charity football match at the Eco-Power Stadium last weekend. He was part of the Owls legends' team who took on a Doncaster Rovers legends to help raise funds for the Eve Merton Dreams Trust.

Di Canio played the whole game and was booked in the second half after a goal was ruled out for offside. In a good-natured match, the referee then took 'a tumble' after Di Canio disputed the decision. Di Canio laughed off the incident and gave a high-five to the ref.

On playing alongside Di Canio, ex-Wednesday midfielder Chris Brunt said: "He seems a nice guy. He got through the whole game so fair play to him. He is still in great