Maybe that's really tragic at the time last appearance Paul Gascoignes not his ailing body, do not be trembling and stammering on stage. Gascoigne is 45 years old, but at the charity event last Thursday in Northampton, he looks like an old man. With both hands he must grab the microphone so violently shaking his limbs. Shocking is that, a broken man, heavily dependent on alcohol, perhaps close to death, but the really tragic are the laughs from the audience, which he earns for his appearance. Voice breaking Gascoigne farces babbles about his life, the moderator asks literally, puts his hand encouragingly on the shoulder of his guest. And after each point the audience hoots about the funny sick man on the stage.
One of the dramas in Gascoignes life that he seems to get rid of the role of the rogue class ever. Even as a talented footballer, he was the notorious clown in all crew cabins. And to this day the people chuckle over classics from the treasure of anecdotes drawn from alcohol and drug addiction and former professionals. Such as when he tells how he then swapped the football boots of his entire team. Or how he personally drove around a bus full of tourists to the Piccadilly Circus. But they love him in England.
But in truth there is to laugh about him absolutely nothing. He hover in grave danger, Gascoignes Manager commented soon after the show in an interview with the BBC. "He needs help." It is the previous low point in the life of the man who was once the greatest footballer in England, the hope of a sporting nation. How could it come to this?
Actually brings the young Paul Gascoigne with everything you need for a good sports story. He comes from a poor kick, he met with a tennis ball, because his parents can not afford a football. Soon he is discovered as a great talent, he signed with Tottenham Hotspur. 1988 selects him as "young footballer of the year". His breakthrough, however, creates "Gazza" at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, as an outstanding player, he leads the English selection to the semifinals. Unforgettable is the scene in which Gascoigne gets in the duel with Germany second yellow card – and crying uncontrollably in his jersey, because he is now blocked for a possible final. But so far it is not: is against Germany in a penalty shootout final destination, England is out.
Maybe "Gazza" was never better than during this World Cup – dribbling and combative, an impeller with unconventional ideas. Yet there was already then this eerie, self-destructive side. In his autobiography, he later describes how he found the night before the Germany game no sleep. Restless, he wandered through the hotel, and eventually joined the distraction to our own plant at a tennis match against two Americans. And on the night before the most important game of his career.
1992 Gascoigne joins Lazio, after a couple of disappointing years in Italy, he moves on to the Rangers. There, it works better again sporty, but he always gets the headlines with private escapades. He beats his wife Sheryl hospitalized 14 weeks after the wedding, after the costly divorce and various Saufexzessen makes "Gazza" 1998 acquaintance with a rehabilitation clinic. "This is not Gascoigne times 40," it says at that time in the football magazine "Kicker".
Even more striking is what services Gascoigne also at this stage shows. 2002, when he is under contract at Everton, he fueled himself – as he described it in an interview -. Before the match against Sunderland with three and a half bottles of wine, two triple brandy and 13 sleeping pills Gascoigne plays, goes home and goes to sleep. When he wakes up the next morning, he does not remember anything – but next to his bed, an empty champagne bottle. He has been named "Man of the Match".
Meanwhile, the list of his alcohol and drug escapades is even more impressive. "Four bottles of whiskey and 16 lines of coke" to Gascoigne's own words at this time – daily. In 2008 he landed a total of three times in psychiatry, even after he is apprehended drunk and confused in a London hair salon. There's a photo of this year, on the morning Gascoigne shuffles through his home town – on his arm dangles a wide open valise, is a towel, a bottle of gin and a piggy bank. "But in bad company", then titled the soccer magazine "11 Friends" a Gascoigne-portrait.
Six months of the fallen footballer spends time in a rehab facility and then pulls into an apartment by the sea in Bournemouth. At first it seems as if he'd just get his life under control – but then last Thursday follows that shocking appearance at the charity gala in Northampton. Something, it seems, has brought the 45-year-old off the track again. Perhaps the death of a close friend, the Gascoigne had met at the hospital, as suggested by some tabloids these days.
Last weekend organized a few of his closest friends Gascoignes withdrawal. Radio presenter Chris Evans, cricketer Ronnie Irani, former soccer star Gary Lineker and TV presenter Piers Morgan sat him down, according to the tabloid "The Sun" on Monday evening on a plane to Phoenix, Arizona. Because Gascoigne is broke, they should have taken the cost of the rehab.
Of course, the tabloids keep him in America on the trail. There is a photo that shows Gascoigne just after arriving in Phoenix. The "Sun" has printed it. You see Gascoigne as he cowers in a airport bar. He has ordered a large glass of beer. Here you can continue reading