West Ham take on Everton at the London Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday, which you can listen to live on talkSPORT from 5:30pm.
The Hammers and the Toffees are ninth and eleventh respectively as they compete for the ‘best of the rest’ status by finishing seventh in the table.
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Both sides will be desperate to win and in a game where getting the three points is essentially all that matters, sportsmanship is thus of secondary importance most of the time.
But cast your minds back over 18 years ago to a cold December afternoon at Goodison Park in 2000 and West Ham have a promising attack made even better when onrushing Toffees goalkeeper Paul Gerrard suddenly pulls up injured.
With the game locked at 1-1, and a cross from the right heading straight for striker Paolo Di Canio, this was the perfect opportunity for the Hammers to claim a vital victory.
However, the Italian did the unthinkable and passed up the opportunity to be the hero and caught the ball, so Gerrard could receive treatment.
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Di Canio is a master at producing the unconventional but even this was shocking by his standards.
The game finished 1-1 and the brilliant act of sportsmanship earned Di Canio a standing ovation from the Everton faithful and Gerrard presented him with an award in the return fixture at Upton Park in March 2001, having been honoured by FIFA for his stunning act of Fair Play.
West Ham manager at the time Harry Redknapp recounted the tale on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast Show during this year’s Cheltenham Festival and you can listen to the audio above.
Redknapp said: “My God, the day he [Di Canio] caught the ball at Everton with five minutes to go and we needed the points badly and instead of heading it in he catches the ball so Gerrard can get treatment!
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“I’ve come off at the end and I’m like ‘what’s he done?’, Stuart Pearce comes thundering into the dressing room and says ‘don’t let me near him, I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him, I’m going to rip his head off!’
“Two minutes later I’ve got to do an interview live on Sky and the guy says to me ‘what a great day for football’
“The game wasn’t that good! He then went ‘Di Canio, great sportsmanship, you must be so proud of him’.
“I’m going ‘oh yeah, yes of course, wonderful’ but we want to kill him really!â€
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Redknapp was despairing at Di Canio after the incident!
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