Midfield maestro Paul Gascoigne and the career he could have had

Few football fans have forgotten Paul Gascoigne playing. He was a midfield maestro: creative and hard-working, with great technique and a powerful shot. He could turn any game around on his own. And Gascoigne could have had an even better career had he been more disciplined.

His record speaks for itself. He scored 110 goals in 468 club matches, cup games included. He also won 57 caps for the Three Lions and scored 10 goals for England. Gascoigne finished fourth at the 1990 FIFA World Cup with England and reached the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championship.

His greatest successes at club level were winning the FA Cup with Tottenham in 1991 and two Scottish Premier League titles with Rangers. So how could such a technically gifted player as Gazza win so few major trophies? In his autobiographies he revealed that he had suffered from bulimia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and, as was widely known, alcoholism. Gazza has an addictive personality, and it is hard to say which of his several addictions did the most damage.

With such a lifestyle, his days became very difficult. He divorced his wife Sheryl after a marriage that lasted from 1996 to 1998.

On the other hand, his glory on the pitch made him the second most popular person in England in 1990. He signed an exclusive deal with The Sun and set up Paul Gascoigne Promotions, hiring a large staff to deal with all the requests.

Interestingly, his last club was Boston United in League Two in 2004, and he left because the club's directors would not allow him to take part in ITV's celebrity jungle reality show.

He then decided to become a manager, taking charge of Kettering Town in 2005. Bookmakers were taking bets on whether he would last until Christmas. In the end he stayed just 39 days, and according to the club's owner he was not paid for his work because he had been drunk throughout his time in charge.

In 2010 Gazza claimed that the killer Raoul Moat was his brother, after, by his own account, snorting 14 lines of cocaine. Fourteen lines, and he survived.

The lesson is simple: Gazza's football is worth studying and learning from, but his behaviour away from the pitch is not one to follow.

From Gateshead to White Hart Lane

Paul Gascoigne was born in Gateshead on 27 May 1967. He came through the youth system at Newcastle United, captained the club's youth team to the 1984-85 FA Youth Cup and made his first-team debut as a substitute against Queens Park Rangers on 13 April 1985. In 1988 Tottenham Hotspur signed him for £2.2 million, a British record fee at the time.

The 1990 World Cup in Italy made him a national figure. In the semi-final against West Germany on 4 July 1990 he was booked for a foul on Thomas Berthold, a yellow card that would have ruled him out of the final, and the television pictures of his tears became one of the defining images of the tournament. England drew 1-1 and lost the shoot-out 4-3, and later that year Gascoigne was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The injury and the move to Italy

The 1991 FA Cup final brought both a winner's medal and a serious setback. Around 15 minutes into the match he made a reckless knee-high challenge on Gary Charles and ruptured the cruciate ligaments in his right knee. A transfer to Lazio had already been agreed, but the injury kept him out for the whole of the 1991-92 season. The move went through in 1992 for £5.5 million, and he made his Serie A debut on 27 September 1992.

Rangers, Euro 96 and after

Rangers paid a club-record £4.3 million for him in July 1995, and in Glasgow he won two league titles, the Scottish Cup and the League Cup. At Euro 96 he scored one of the best-remembered goals in England's history, volleying past Andy Goram in the 79th minute of a 2-0 win over Scotland at Wembley on 15 June 1996. Two years later Glenn Hoddle left him out of the 1998 World Cup squad, and he never played for England again. Spells at Middlesbrough, Everton and Burnley followed before his brief time at Boston United.