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HISTORICAL FACTS: Gazza - The Untold Story

‘I drove a London bus down the road singing, ‘We’re all going on a summer holiday.’ My dad rang and said, “You stupid bastard, you’re never going to learn, are you?”’ Paul Gascoigne on the prank that got him in trouble with his dad

One classic Gazza prank even got on his father’s radar

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‘At Spurs, the lads said I wasn’t funny, so I brought an ostrich to training’ Paul Gascoigne recalls one of his most infamous pranks

Who else but Gazza would be able to wrangle an ostrich?

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‘It’s going to be a hard task for England to win the World Cup – we have a chance like everyone else, but every player has got to be on it, you can’t afford to carry anybody’ Paul Gascoigne assesses England’s World Cup chances

Gazza turned out 57 times for England during his career

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‘The smell was so bad that the chairman made me buy him a new car - £17,000 that cost me, and it was still cheaper than the other trout I divorced…’ Paul Gascoigne on the prank that cost him a fortune

Gazza loved a prank, but some came at a bigger cost than others…

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LIGHTS! CAMERA! ADDICTION! Gazza gives us his most revealing interview EVER

Many years since our last chat, FFT spent two weeks with Paul Gascoigne to get to know him as he is now. Conversations veered between the serious and the comical – from the dark side of fame, to a win bonus for a mouse…

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‘I got a phone call and our manager said, ‘I think you’d better take it’. It was the Pope - I said, ‘Hi Pope, you alright?’ So we went to the Vatican to meet the Pope and shook hands with him’ Paul Gascoigne on meeting Pope John Paul II

The Pope was lucky enough to have an audience with Gazza during his time in Serie A

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The story of 2025 in FourFourTwo covers

At the end of another thrilling football year, we look back at 2025 through the lens of our covers

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‘When Terry Venables died, I was sat in the car and cried my eyes out. Terry was a f**king diamond. He had to be, to put up with me’ Paul Gascoigne on the manager he loved playing for most

Gazza played for a succession of England managers and thrived more under some than others

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‘When Terry Venables died, I was sat in the car and cried my eyes out. Terry was a f**king diamond. He had to be, to put up with me’ Paul Gascoigne on the manager he loved playing for most

Gascoigne played his best football under Venables for Spurs and England

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"In the tunnel, I said to Diego Maradona, ‘I’m pissed.’ He said, ‘It’s OK, Gazza, so am I…’ I just started laughing!" Paul Gascoigne on lining up against Maradona

The maverick pair were two of the game’s most skilful - and unpredictable - players of their generation

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‘A guy went, ‘If I give you something, can I have a selfie with it?’ He pulled his f**king glass eye out and said, ‘Can you hold that?’ Paul Gascoigne on his greatest fan encounters

Gazza has been the subject of adoring fans for almost four decades

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‘Jack Grealish reminds me of myself - it doesn’t matter if he loses the ball, he always wants it again… He’s handsome as well!’ Paul Gascoigne on why he can’t imagine Grealish missing the World Cup

Gazza is a big fan of Everton loan star Grealish

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‘I told a teacher I was going to make it as a footballer and got kicked out of class. After the 1990 World Cup, I went back to the school and said, "Do you remember me, you f**king bastard!"’ Paul Gascoigne on practising his autograph at school

Gazza knew he would make it from a young age - and now tells us that he rubbed it in a teacher's face

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‘At Italia 90, the best bit about the entire tournament was that I knew I was the best player in the world’ Paul Gascoigne on being the best on Earth in 1990

England’s run to the World Cup semi-finals made Paul Gascoigne a household name in 1990

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‘It’s still my favourite. I was playing for my country against my own players from Rangers, they’d been giving me grief and I said, ‘Just wait until we get to Wembley…’ Paul Gascoigne on his Euro 96 goal against Scotland

Gazza’s goal against the Auld Enemy proved to be the turning point in England’s Euro 96 campaign

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‘Fergie called me into his office three years ago to give me a bollocking - even now, he’s the only manager that I s**t myself when I see him’ Paul Gascoigne on turning down Sir Alex Ferguson

Gazza came close to joining Manchester United from Newcastle in 1988

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‘I ate Liam Gallagher’s steak. He came back with a fire extinguisher, set it off and absolutely slaughtered us with it!’ Paul Gascoigne on his meeting with the Oasis frontman

Paul Gascoigne and Liam Gallagher’s meeting was as combustible as you’d expect

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Ghostwriter of Paul Gascoigne’s autobiography reveals AI couldn’t understand his thick geordie accent

Gascoigne delveds into his career, family life and battles with addiction in his autobiography Eight

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'I’m always going to be an alcoholic. It used to be weeks of benders, but it’s only about two days now and I’ll stop – I’ll think "Waste of f**king time"' Paul Gascoigne speaks exclusively to FourFourTwo

Paul Gascoigne has opened up about his struggles with addiction and mental health in a exclusive interview with FourFourTwo

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‘I kicked Alessandro Nesta by the back of the calf in training and did my fibula and tibia… I missed maybe four years of international football, but I still managed to get fit again and back to my best’ Paul Gascoigne on his injury hell

Paul Gascoigne relays his troubles in signing for Lazio to FourFourTwo

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Gazza Exclusive: ‘Ricky Hatton was funny as f**k. He was like myself, he gave his time up for anybody and he’d give his last penny away. It was heartbreaking’ Paul Gascoigne speaks tells FourFourTwo about his friendship with the boxing world champion

The former England midfielder recalls time spent with the late boxer Ricky Hatton

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‘Glenn Hoddle is a prick. Terry Venables warned me "Hoddle will try to make a name for himself" – he said it was because of my drinking, but six other players were out until 6am’ Paul Gascoigne speaks exclusively to FourFourTwo on his 1998 World Cup snub

Paul Gascoigne recalls to FourFourTwo how he reacted after being snubbed for the 1998 World Cup

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NEW ISSUE: The ultimate Gazza interview! United legends Scholes and Butt, Kenny Dalglish, Keane vs McCarthy, Zlatan’s greatest night and Sean Dyche’s top dance moves

Get your hands on the latest issue of FourFourTwo magazine – available in print or on your device – from Thursday November 13

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‘He’s a bit like Paul Gascoigne. Gazza had a way of just enjoying himself around the place, which is important when you’re away in a tournament environment for up to six weeks’ Teddy Sheringham on what Cole Palmer adds behind the scenes

The former England striker sees a similarity with one of his iconic former Three Lions team-mates

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Paul Gascoigne came back from the dead in rehab

The former professional footballer Paul Gascoigne was in an induced coma for 18 days, but after the doctors at the Arizona clinic put an injection into his heart, he came back alive.

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