Ex-Premier League hardnut Danny Dichio was also a DJ and now coaches a team in California.
Dichio appeared in the Premier League for Queens Park Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland during his playing career and built a reputation for his hard man style of play. Away from the pitch, though. Dichio worked as a nightclub DJ during the 1990s, a role which gave him early access to some of the biggest dance hits of the decade.
In a magazine interview at the time, the former England under-21 striker even boasted: “I had the ‘Horny’ song months before it was in the charts.”
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As a player, Dichio scored 19 goals in 93 top flight appearances and also had spells with Derby County, Millwall and Preston North End.
His journeyman career also included an 18-month stay in Italy, where Dichio turned out for Sampdoria and Lecce before returning to England. He hung up his boots aged 34 in 2009 after two years playing for Toronto in the MLS.
After signing for Toronto, who were a newly former MLS expansion side at the time of his arrival, Dichio scored the club’s first goal and also received their first red card, one of seven times he was sent off as a player.
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(Image: @torontosoccerconnect/Instagram)
Following his retirement, Dichio remained with Toronto and held multiple coaching roles with the club’s first-team and academy between 2010 and 2022.
He has been a team coordinator for the Canadian national team since March 2021, a role which has seen him travel with the squad to the CONCACAF Gold Cup and last year’s World Cup.
Dichio left Toronto in January 2022 to take up the job of assistant manager at Sacramento Republic, who are managed by fellow Englishman and former West Brom midfielder Mark Briggs.
The club currently play in the USL Championship, the second tier of American football, and finished fourth in the Western Conference last season to qualify for the play-offs, where they were beaten by the Colorado Springs Switchbacks in the conference semi-finals.
In addition to his coaching career, Dichio also provides match analysis as a pundit for Canada’s Sportsnet TV network.
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