It is two hours before Paolo Di Canio is due on stage but already the car park at the Loddon Valley leisure centre in Reading is at bursting point.

A man in a West Ham training top slams his door shut and strides off towards the entrance with the air of a fella who knows he’s clinched the last spot.

The guy in the retro Hammers shirt pulling in has no chance and, like the rest of us, does a lap of the lot before accepting he’ll have to find a side street.

Such is the clamour for an evening in which one of the Premier League’s most colourful characters and one of West Ham’s most cherished entertainers will hold court.

Di Canio’s stage is far humbler now, as more than 400 people pack into a sports hall across the corridor from the children’s soft play area and take their seats in front of a temporary platform with a cheap black curtain hung behind it.

On one side of the room, the temporary bar is doing decent trade while the queue for the hot buffet snakes around the back where a vast array of signed framed memorabilia is piled high ready to be flogged.

There is a huge clamour for an evening where one of the Premier League’s most colourful characters and one of West Ham’s most cherished entertainers will hold court

Di Canio’s stage is far humbler now, as more than 400 people pack into a sports hall across the corridor from the children’s soft play area

It’s £150 for pictures of Damon Hill or Sterling Moss, £125 for Torvill & Dean and £175 for Ed Sheeran, Craig David or the actress that played Ada Shelby in Peaky Blinders

A stack of framed pictures signed by Paul Gascoigne are going at £99 a pop, same for ones of Geoff Hurst.

A pile of Di Canio ones will set you back £160 each, as will one of Europa Conference League winner Said Benrahma or another of goalkeeping legend Phil Parkes.

It’s £150 for Damon Hill or Sterling Moss, £125 for Torvill & Dean and £175 for Ed Sheeran, Craig David or the actress that played Ada Shelby in Peaky Blinders.

You get a sense it’s more about how much cash the organisers could pry from punters’ pockets than making it an evening Hammers – or Celtic or Sheffield Wednesday – fans will never forget.

Not that the sea of people, many in claret and blue, many with Di Canio’s name adorned on them – or, as one lady had on the back of hers ‘Genius 10’ – care. 

Certainly not the grinning lad who’s just got his hands on a signed framed picture of Jarrod Bowen courtesy of The Bank of Grandad. They are here for the man himself and the memories.

Di Canio is as suave as ever in his navy double-breasted suit jacket, shirt and tie with slim-fitting grey trousers and suede shoes.

For more than an hour before he takes to the stage, he stands beside it posing with the never-ending line of people who had paid for a picture (£30 for one on the night and another £30 for a frame to put it in).

When Di Canio strides through the room to take his place in one of the white seats on the stage, the chants of ‘Irons, Irons’ ring around the room alongside booming renditions of his name

Di Canio became a Hammers fan favourite during his stint at the club between 1999 and 2003

The fiery Italian had a memorable spell as manager of Sunderland a decade later

‘What a legend,’ said one chap on Mail Sport’s table as he returned picture in hand. ‘A proper man, a proper guy.’

When Di Canio strides through the room to take his place in one of the white seats on the stage, the chants of ‘Irons, Irons’ ring around the room alongside booming renditions of his name. Even the two Wednesday fans present join in with the latter.

The compere takes Di Canio through his career with questions about his time at Lazio, Juventus, Napoli, AC Milan and Celtic and the best players he’s played alongside, Ballon d’Or winners such as Roberto Baggio, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

He’s asked, of course, about the time he shoved referee Paul Alcock to the ground in 1998 while playing for Wednesday.

‘I don’t know why I put my hands on him…but I thought at the time, if I had pushed my eight-year-old daughter, she couldn’t have fallen down like that!’

‘He needs to talk about West Ham,’ mutters one bloke on his way back from the toilets. Di Canio does, at last, and where else to start than that stunning volley against Wimbledon that took place a quarter of a century ago last week?

Di Canio springs to his feet, now 56 but as animated as ever, and zips across the stage to recreate the moment in his mind.

He’s asked, of course, about the time he shoved referee Paul Alcock to the ground in 1998 while playing for Wednesday

‘I don’t know why I put my hands on him…but I thought at the time, if I had pushed my eight-year-old daughter, she couldn’t have fallen down like that!’

‘I tried to jump but couldn’t because it was a bit behind me but then, in a split second, I decide: “now I am going to score the best goal of all time!”’

‘Trevor Sinclair… he took a s*** first touch!,’ he laughs. ‘The second touch was good because he prepared his delivery – then he delivers the ball that is incredible.

‘It was a typical English delivery. In Italy we play them more bendy, but this was like a razor. In truth, I tried to jump but couldn’t because it was a bit behind me but then, in a split second, I decide: “now I am going to score the best goal of all time!”’

Up go the roars.

‘From my celebration, you can tell it was even a surprise to me! I don’t like to celebrate myself much,’ he adds with a grin, ‘…but it is so difficult. The best goal.’

Ever the unpredictable force, Di Canio would go from a man banned for 11 games for pushing a ref to earning a FIFA fair play award after his act of sportsmanship in 2000 when he caught the ball instead of scoring a late winner when he saw Everton’s goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was injured.

‘My character is about loyalty and respecting people, I’ll never do something from behind to lose your honour,’ recalls Di Canio. ‘That moment was clear, the ball was in front of Gerrard. It was clear that he was in control of the ball. I said stop. For me the game was stopped in that moment.’

A win would have taken West Ham above Liverpool in the race for the top six.

‘We finished the match and I thought I had done something good and special, and the Everton players shook my hand to say well done. I was the last into the dressing room.

He earned a FIFA fair play award after his act of sportsmanship in 2000 when he caught the ball instead of scoring a late winner when he saw Everton’s goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was injured

A win would have taken West Ham above Liverpool in the race for the top six

Di Canio is spared questions about his political past. None about the two straight-arm salutes he gave to Lazio fans in 2005

‘“F*** off, you!” they said. I asked what did I do wrong. “We should win the game,” they said, “we need points!”. I was in the shower and I was worried someone was going to attack me!’

Di Canio is spared questions about his political past. None about the two straight-arm salutes he gave to Lazio fans in 2005, nor his comments afterwards that declared ‘I am a fascist, not a racist’. Nor the tattoo of Dux he has on his arm, a reference to former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

‘He had a difficult time politically,’ says a man on the table with Mail Sport, the lucky car parker in the West Ham training top.

‘He did a Nazi salute. He’s changed now, though.’

‘I’d have Paolo for Prime Minister all day long,’ replies his son.

It’s been a hectic few days for Di Canio. He did another of these nights in Essex the night before and 10 minutes before he takes the stage here he receives a text to inform him he’s become a grandfather again.

On Tuesday last week, he visited West Ham’s Rush Green training ground and met manager Graham Potter.

Fitting, too, as one of the final questions from the audience is to ask Di Canio if he’d ever like to manage the club he still calls home.

Ten minutes before he takes the stage here he receives a text to inform him he’s become a grandfather again

One of the final questions from the audience is to ask Di Canio if he’d ever like to manage the club he still calls home

‘I will live my whole life until the last second in hope and dream,’ Di Canio says of managing his beloved West Ham

‘I will live my whole life until the last second in hope and dream,’ says Di Canio to another roar from the crowd. ‘But now I don’t want to talk about it because I met with Graham Potter and I am very happy. I had a chat with him. I like him. He has a good football brain.

‘I hope in the next few matches, we give him a chance to bring all the characteristics of the players we love and, in the transfer window, the right footballer who lets him deliver the strategy and philosophy and attacking mentality. I think it’s really positive for the future.’

Before Di Canio leaves the stage to catch a flight back to Italy, he shows one last time he still has it in him to hold a crowd in the palm of his hand as he leads a rendition of I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Everyone downs the last of their drinks, slips on their coats and chatter away as they head back to their cars, while one man skips towards the exit with a smile on his face and a replica World Cup statue and teddy bear tucked under his arm.