Gazza: Italia ’90 was best time of my life… even if my antics didn’t always go down well with Sir Bobby
PAUL GASCOIGNE feared no one when he set foot on football’s greatest stage at the 1990 World Cup.
The England legend reveals all about his Italian Job in Harry Harris’ new book, Italia 90 Revisited — The Players’ Stories, available from Empire Publications.
Here, Gazza gives his account of that memorable summer…
WHEN I see clips of Italia 90 I feel great, then immediately sad.
It was the best time of my life. I loved it, I loved it from the moment I got on that plane.
Nothing fazed me, I wanted to be in the World Cup, every player’s dream. But it felt like I was going on holiday — I was playing tennis, table tennis. I loved every minute of it.
My greatest memory of Italia 90 is getting on the plane and feeling the excitement.
It doesn’t feel like 30 years ago. When those clips come up on TV it feels like yesterday. But then I’m upset and try not to think about Italia 90.
The best time of my life, yes, but how I miss it.
I miss it so much because I never got to experience it again — and that’s why it makes me feel so sad after feeling so good watching it back on TV.
I loved it, just loved it, but I treated it like I had treated going to a youth cup tournament.
It was a holiday. I played tennis, spent time by the pool, I was on the pedal boats.
The football didn’t worry me. I didn’t care who we were playing, what anyone said about the opposition, I knew I could get the better of them.
I was full of confidence, not interested in the tactics, who their best player was, or who would be marking me.
All I was interested in was in winning those games and doing my best for the team to achieve it.
Of course, playing tennis at one in the morning before the World Cup semi- final didn’t go down too well with the gaffer.
I was on the court and I could hear this gruff voice shouting, “Gazza, Gazza”. I thought, ‘F***, I’m in trouble now’.
Bobby Robson would knock on my door if he thought I was up too late playing tennis.
I would tell Chris Waddle, as I roomed with him, that if he heard a knock on the door, it was sure to be Bobby Robson and to tell him I’m asleep.
Sure enough, there was a knock on the door. “Gazza, where is he?” Chris would reply, “He’s sleeping, boss”.
“Sleeping, sleeping? I’ve been told he’s been playing tennis for the last two hours!”
Bobby Robson told me before the semi-final with West Germany that I would be up against Lothar Matthaus, the best midfielder in the world.
SHEARER ON 'UNIQUE TALENT' GAZZA
By Alan Shearer
GROWING up in Newcastle three years younger than Gazza, I will always remember the buzz there was about this great kid coming through.
It had been around from when he played boys’ club football and people knew there was this special talent on the way.
He showed it in the youth teams and I also recall him getting into the first team at Newcastle in 1985.
His ability was unbelievable and everything he did was just so natural.
I moved to Southampton the next year but then went on to play with him for England.
In terms of natural ability, Gazza and Paul Scholes were the best I ever played with.
One of my favourite memories is that incredibly special goal he scored against Scotland at Euro 96.
The way he lobbed it over Colin Hendry, before that finish, was incredible.
His performances against Spain and Germany in the same tournament were also magnificent.
As a forward, what you want from a midfielder is to know that when you make a run, the ball is going to get to you. He was as good as anyone at finding that pass.
Yes, he wanted to do his own stuff on the ball but he could pass it just well with either foot.
There was controversy over Glenn Hoddle’s decision not to include him in the squad for the 1998 World Cup.
But I sort of understood it because he was not at his best going into the tournament and also had one or two off-field issues.
He didn’t take the news at all well. I know how much Gazza loved playing for England, so I completely got it from his perspective too.
He was the practical joker in whatever dressing room he was in.
I said to Gary Lineker the other day that he must have been a nightmare to have at training every day.
Whether it was cutting holes in your socks or putting deep heat in your underpants, there was always something.
We only had it every five or six weeks with England, whereas some had to put up with it every day at club level.
I doubt there has ever been anybody quite like Gazza.
I told him, “Sorry, you are wrong there, gaffer… I’m the best in the world”. And I was determined to go out and prove it — and I did.
Before that semi-final, the president of Juventus stopped me in the stadium and said he wanted to sign me after the game — it was minutes before I was about to go and get ready to play.
He said I should first sign for Roma to learn the language and settle into the Italian way of life, then he would sign me from Roma.
He wanted to speak to me after the game but I didn’t speak to him.
As for the tears, you know I didn’t touch the German — and the ref said to me he wouldn’t have booked me if he had known I’d already been booked.
I cried, but not because I was missing the final as everyone thinks.
I cried because I felt I had let down the fans, my team-mates, the manager, everybody.
I cried because I thought it was the end of my career, that I would never have another chance to play in a team like that, on the world stage, with and also against such world-class footballers.
And, of course, I was right to have that feeling.
In 1994, I broke my arm and, in any case, we didn’t qualify for the States. I had a good Euro 96 but Glenn Hoddle left me out in 98.
He said he’d found God — must have been a great pass!
So, it was my first and also my last World Cup. But I don’t have any regrets that Glenn Hoddle left me out in 98, because no one can take away from me what I did in Italia 90.
When I got back to the North East, my dad threw a party for me at our local working men’s club but halfway through I told him I had to nip out for a while.
I went round to the park where I would spend virtually all night kicking the ball around, until I went home exhausted and fell asleep.
In that park I cried, thinking about the kid kicking the ball around there who had made it all the way to the World Cup semi-final and nearly made the final.
If I do have a regret it is that I became an alcoholic and that I now have pellets in my stomach.
It’s OK if I have a glass of beer or a glass of wine but if I have too much beer or wine, any vodka or spirits or any drugs, then I just spew it all out.
Pele always says, “There’s only one Pele and there will only ever be one Pele”.
Well, there will never be another Paul Gascoigne.
And if there is, they will need to be in rehab nine times!