This post will begin our series with famous sport stars from all over the globe. We start with the english football player Paul Gascoigne. “Gazza” was a quick striker with a great shot and sense for the game. When at his best he was an assert for any team he played with. Paul Gascoigne was born in the Dunston area of Gateshead, England 1967. He was named Paul John Gascoigne after the two Beatles-members Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Early career
As a young player he played for Gateshead Boys. In 1980 he was recruited by Newcastle United. Here he also became known for his ability to always get in trouble, which would later affect his life in a tragic way.
Nevertheless, Paul Gascoigne was captain of the Newcastle Uniteds youth team which won the FA Youth Cup in 1984-85. At the age of 18 he signed a two-year contract with Newcastle in the First Division (the league changed its name to Premier League in 1992). In 1988 Gascoigne signed up with Tottenham Hotspur’s who placed 3rd in the 1989/90 season.
The english national team
This summer Paul Gascoigne also played the 1990 World Cup in Italy for England who won their group. In the semi-final, where Germany beat England in the shootout, Gascoigne was booked for the second time during the tournament which meant he would miss the final if England would have went through, Gascoignes tears after the yellow card caught much sympathy in his home country.
Paul Gascoigne helped England qualify for the 92 UEFA championships while the team failed to qualify for the World Cup in USA in 1994. A broken leg stopped him for participating in the 1992 Euro championships in Sweden. In 1996, once again, Germany stopped the english hope for a gold medal in football by winning the semifinal.
Paul Gascoigne – Clown Prince of England
During his career, “Gazza” became known as the Clown Prince of England. He was a PR nightmare, saying “Fuck of Norway” to Norwegian television before a qualifier game, caught drinking in a dentist chair (!) when the english national team was in Hong Kong during a friendly game before the 1996. He sure was a joker on and outside the field as we can see in the clip below:
In the last game in the qualification for the 1998 world cup Gascoigne made a good game to secure 0-0 against Italy which meant England made it to the tournament. However, he was not chosen to play in the tournament after being caught eating kebab a late night with his DJ friend Chris Evans just a wee before the final squad was to be chosen. Gascoigne didn’t do a single game for the national team since then.
Other clubs
During his career Gascoigne played for Lazio in the Italy Serie A league, Scottish club Glasgow Rangers, a couple of years in Middlesbrough and finally, in 2000 in Everton. He also did some coaching in China and some english clubs in the lower leagues.
Accelerating personal problems
Now his drinking problems had become worse and he also suffered from depression. Sadly, that’s what we can read about in the news today when it comes to Paul Gascoigne. However, at bonus-finder.com we want to remember him as a great athlete, not for his personal problems.
To summarize this post, we should look back at Paul Gascoigne’s career as a top-rated striker who was a great, committed goal scorer for his club teams and the english national team. The Clown Prince of England is an icon of which we don’t see many today.
