At 58, the former English champion relives on TV the wounds of a life marked by alcohol, youth trauma and a father who, to save him, was forced to have him committed
Paul Gascoigne no longer needs masks. At 58, in front of the cameras and with his new book Eight in hand, the former English football star has opened the door to the darkest moments of his life. “Gazza”, as the fans called him, recounted his long battle with alcohol with sincere emotion, alternating bitter smiles with memories that still disturb him.
the anecdote
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Among the strongest passages, an episode that perfectly summarizes the excess and brilliance of the Gascoigne character: the 1996 League Cup final with Rangers. “At half-time – he recalled – the coach asked me if I had been drinking. I said no. He replied: ‘Then go and get something’. I drank nine brandies. I returned to the pitch, scored two goals and was elected man of the match. But they didn’t let me go to the post-match dinner because I had already drunk too much”. Behind the irony, however, lies a story of profound pain. Gascoigne said he lived for months without speaking to his parents, a silence that had “destroyed” him. Only when his father decided to have him committed did he understand that this was the turning point: “Those eleven days saved my life.”
the drama
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In the book, the former midfielder also looks back on a drama that affected him as a boy: the death of a friend’s little brother, hit by a car before his eyes. “I had taken it upon myself to look after him – he said with a broken voice – he ran forward a meter and a car hit him. He died in my arms… I thought he was still breathing, but that wasn’t the case.” That trauma, never truly processed, became an open wound that accompanied him throughout his career, fueling his mental health problems and alcohol addiction. “I’ve done a lot of crazy things – he admitted – but today I try to look at life differently”.
La Gazzetta dello Sport
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