Once described as the most gifted English footballer of all time, Paul Gascoigne – aka Gazza – is 58 and looking fantastic. And he tells The Mirror he wants people to get to know ‘the real me’
Looking like a man at the top of his game, as he poses for an exclusive photoshoot, Gazza says: “I feel better now than I have in years.”
Once described as the most gifted English footballer of all time, now 58 and looking fantastic, he tells The Mirror: “I hope I am at a point that I can really look back over everything I’ve gone through in my life with a different – and more positive – perspective. After so many years in the spotlight, I feel like it’s time people got to know the real me.”
Speaking ahead of his new book Eight being released by Mirror Books in the autumn, he has named it after the number 8 shirt he famously wore for England for Euro 96, as well as for Spurs. Eight, he reveals, also relates to the eight emotions he says have “run riot through my life…sometimes all in the same afternoon!”
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The book promises to give the real story behind some of the more infamous events in the life of the Spurs, Rangers, Middlesbrough and England champion – from the drinking, to living with bipolar and his bizarre involvement in the hunt for killer his bizarre involvement in the hunt for Raoul Moat.
Gazza, who recently appeared on a video tribute to Gary Lineker, when he bowed out as host of Match of the Day, thanked his former England and Spurs teammate for being there during his tougher times and hoped they would go “gallivanting” together, now he has more free time.
Gazza’s well-documented addiction problems in the past have led to a series of arrests for drunk and disorderly and drink-drive offences. And his marriage to Sheryl Gascoigne in 1996 was dogged by allegations of domestic violence. But, despite their divorce in 1998, she has written about her ongoing attempts to help him.
Coming 20 years after his autobiography My Story in 2005, Gazza feels that in Eight, he shows he now has a better grasp of what was happening to him during his rollercoaster life journey. Billed as “Paul Gascoigne as never before,” if his story is anywhere near as showstopping as his new pictures, then it will be a riveting read.
Paul Gascoigne: Eight – The Real Gazza Revealed For The First Time by Paul Gascoigne is published by Mirror Books on October 23 RRP £22.
‘Gazza’s looking better than ever – he was one of the heroes of my youth’
Mirror photographer Rowan Griffiths photographed his footballing hero Gazza for the first time two weeks ago and says: “He looks fantastic.” Meeting at a hotel in Didcot, Oxfordshire, Rowan says: “Gazza knows how to hold the room. He was very genuine, asking how we all were. He was doing a speaking tour and seemed very well. I was so relieved to see him looking so good, as I was a fan from way back in the day myself. He was one of the heroes of my youth.”
Rowan, who has been a Mirror photographer since 2003, reminisced with Gazza about the World Cup game against the then Czechoslovakia in 1990, when he scored one of the goals that bagged England a 4-2 win.
“I went to the Czech game,” says Rowan. “Gazza recalled every detail of that game to me. Someone else asked if he remembered every game and he said yes he did. It’s amazing to have that recall.”
Disclosing that he has swapped hotel stays for Airbnbs when he is on speaking tours, so he has greater autonomy, when Rowan asked how he was feeling, Gazza said: “I’m great.” While looking brilliant and posing like a consummate professional, Rowan says: “He still likes a typical Gazza joke. We would be doing some serious portraits and the next thing, he was doing a ballerina pose! That’s Gazza for you!”
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