The interesting life and career of Gazza
Paul Gascoigne, commonly known as Gazza, is a former football player and one time hero of England. He had a fantastic career and helped the teams he played on to great successes in the past. He was a midfielder who became a national and international superstar
for his ability to play the game extremely well. His life after football has taken a rather bleak turn. He is an alcoholic and has slowly become a pretty eccentric individual over the last few years. The most recent news about the former football star is that
he has been bailed on charges of possessing Class A drugs. It is not looking too good for this one time football legend.
Gascoigne was born in 1967 in Gateshead, England. Sources say that the future star of England started playing the game at the age of 4 years old in the streets and parks. He joined his school team at the age of 8 and joined a local boy’s football club as
well. In 1980, a young Gazza was signed to train with Newcastle United and eventually became the captain of their youth team. During the 1984-1985 season he helped his team win the FA Youth Cup at the end of the season.
Gascoigne had a troubled childhood and an even more troubled youth career. The young footballer came from a very poor family and his family struggled to make ends meet. As a child, Gazza witnessed the death of the younger brother of a friend who was killed
in a car accident in front of him. A few years later, death entered his life again when a friend of his was killed in a building site accident. Gascoigne also had a lot of trouble during his youth club because he felt picked on and he lashed out a few times
against his teammates. He once drove a tractor into the dressing room after a particularly bad taunting session by his teammates. Alcohol also entered his life at this time and he started drinking at a young age. Even though he swore off the drink forever,
he started drinking when he was 18 again.
Soon Gazza moved up to the professional team and impressed almost immediately. He ended up scoring 25 goals for the club in 107 appearances and his skills as a playmaker prompted offers from both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs. Alex Ferguson later
stated that he felt the only reason Gazza had signed with the Spurs was because the club bought a house for his family. Whatever the reason was, he started playing for the Spurs in 1989. During the 1990-1991 season, he managed to help Tottenham reach the FA
Cup final by scoring 6 goals. He was severely injured in the final and had to sit out the rest of the season because of it. Once he had recovered he was linked with a transfer to Lazio.
He could not adjust to life in Italy and was injured a lot of the times playing for Lazio and in the end he ended up playing 47 times for the club and scoring only six goals. In 1995 he signed for the Glasgow Rangers and after a while impressed so much that
he was inducted into the Ranger’s Hall of Fame. He also had a very impressive international career and turned out to become an international star for England starting in many games and impressing with his skilful playing style. Soon his career came to an end
and his addiction to drinking started to rear its ugly head in his life.
Throughout his life, the footballer has had serious health and addiction problems. He started drinking heavily in 2004 and over the course of his life battled various health issues, such as bulimia, OCD, alcoholism, and depression. He says his decline into
drinking and mental problems were a result of retiring from football and not knowing what to do with himself. Over the years he has been in and out of rehab many times, has tried to take his own life and has been hospitalised numerous times. He has recently
been involved in some very crazy behaviour. A little while ago he went and tried to intervene in the police standoff with Raoul Moat, the man who went on a killing spree, claiming Moat was a friend of his. He has also been recently charged and bailed for possessing
Class A drugs.
Paul Gascoigne’s life is one of extreme highs and immense lows. He shows that a life can be destroyed by alcohol and drugs, even if as successful and worthwhile as his.
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