Player De Canio, a
full back, played mostly with
Serie C1 and
Serie C2 teams, his lone season in
Serie B being 1979–80 with
Matera, marking his debut in the division on 16 September 1979 against
Genoa. He retired in 1989 with amateur team Pisticci, of which he successively became head coach.
Coach De Canio started his coaching career in 1988 with
Promozione team Pisticci, immediately winning the league, being thus promoted to
Serie D. He served as Pisticci boss for four more seasons before joining
Serie C2 team
Savoia during the 1993–94 season, and winning the promotion playoffs the following season. In 1995–96 he coached
Siena of
Serie C1, leading the
Robur to an eighth place. In 1996–97 he signed for Serie C1 minnows
Carpi, a team which featured a young
Marco Materazzi among their players, and led the Emilia-Romagna side to a surprising fourth place which allowed them to play the promotion playoffs. In 1997–98 he moved to
Serie B club
Lucchese, hardly saving them from relegation with a final 16th place. Initially with no club for the following season, De Canio was then signed by
Pescara, where he narrowly missed a surprising promotion to the top flight. De Canio took charge of a Pescara side that had slumped to 13th place in 1997–98 and lost two of its opening three matches in 1998–99. He guided
i biancoazzuri to 63 points, finishing fifth, just one point from fourth, and only missed out on promotion due to the incredible, much-discussed victory of Reggina at Torino on the last day of the season (13 June 1999), which was called a few minutes early due to a pitch invasion. Following his departure from Pescara, it finished 13th again the next season. His impressive coaching performance with Pescara caused interest by
Serie A club
Udinese, which appointed him for the
1999–2000 season. His first
Serie A campaign ended in an eighth place for the
bianconeri and a place in the
UEFA Intertoto Cup, which they
successively won, thus ensuring a place in the
UEFA Cup 2000–01. In
2000–01, after a very impressive start, Udinese entered into a long result crisis which brought to De Canio being sacked on 19 March 2001 following a home loss to
Parma and his replacement with
Luciano Spalletti, who managed to save the club from relegation. In 2001–02, De Canio was appointed as
Napoli boss with the goal to lead the
azzurri back to
Serie A; however he failed to do so, as Napoli ended their Serie B campaign in fifth place, six points shy of the fourth Serie A spot. He consequently left Napoli and was appointed at the helm of
Reggina during the
2002–03 season replacing sacked
Bortolo Mutti, maintaining their place in the Italian top flight after winning a tie-breaking playoff to
Atalanta. During the 2003–04, De Canio was called to replace
Roberto Donadoni at the helm of Serie B club
Genoa, which were fighting to escape relegation despite their initial promotion claims, leading the club to a final 16th place in the league table. He was later sacked by Genoa only a handful days before their Serie B 2004–05 debut to appoint
Serse Cosmi at his place. He was then appointed in January 2005 by Serie A minnows
Siena, a team which he already coached some years earlier, to replace
Luigi Simoni, leading his side to escape relegation for two consecutive seasons.
Queens Park Rangers De Canio was announced as first team coach of English
Championship team
Queens Park Rangers on 29 October 2007, succeeding the recently sacked
John Gregory. He started his QPR experience with a 2–0 home win to
Hull City on 3 November. Rangers signed several players during the January
transfer window:
Ákos Buzsáky who had previously been on loan from
Plymouth Argyle,
Hogan Ephraim from
West Ham,
Kieran Lee on loan from
Manchester United,
Gavin Mahon on loan from
Watford,
Matthew Connolly from
Arsenal,
Patrick Agyemang from
Preston and
Fitz Hall from
Wigan. Early in January QPR also managed to secure striker
Rowan Vine in a permanent move following his brief loan spell which had ended in December. During
his period in charge of the club, De Canio became a very popular figure among the QPR faithful, due to the style and flair he brought back to their game. As a result, he was, along with the club's owners, immortalised in the supporters' song "
Gigi De Canio, Bernie and Flavio" (to the tune of
La donna è mobile). De Canio left the club by "mutual consent" after the end of the season in May 2008, having guided them to fourteenth place in the
Championship. His record at the club comprised 12 wins, 12 losses and 11 draws in 35 games. It has reported that his return to Italy was partly due to a bid to save his marriage.
Back to Italy On 9 March 2009 De Canio signed a contract to become head coach of
Serie A relegation battlers
Lecce, replacing
Mario Beretta at the helm of the
salentini, but did not manage to save the side from relegation. On 31 May 2009 US Lecce announced De Canio had refused to extend his contract with the club; however, on 6 June the club officially confirmed to have reached an agreement with the former QPR manager, who guided the
giallorossi back to the top flight, as league runners-up, in their 2009–10 Serie B campaign. He was sacked on 22 May 2011 as Lecce finished 17th at the end of the
2010–11 season. On 22 April 2012 he was hired again as Genoa head coach, in a desperate attempt to save the team from relegation, until 22 October 2012 when he was sacked. On 20 October 2013, De Canio returned into management as he accepted to take over from
Rolando Maran at the head of endangered Serie A club
Catania. On 15 March 2016, he was appointed manager of
Udinese. He was let go at the end of the season on 19 May. On 21 February 2018, he was appointed manager of
Serie B club
Ternana. In April 2018 he was one of 77 applicants for the vacant
Cameroon national team job. He was fired by
Ternana on 19 January 2019. ==Managerial statistics==