After being taken into intensive care after being discovered collapsed at home in Poole, Dorset, much-loved football great Paul Gascoigne is recovering in the hospital.
Football legend Paul Gascoigne was looking like a man at the top of his game just weeks before he was admitted to intensive care after being found collapsed at home.
Gazza, 58, said he felt the best he has for years as he sat down with the Mirror ahead of his new book Eight being released in the autumn. He took part in an exclusive photoshoot and looked dapper as he spoke about having a better grasp of what was happening to him during his rollercoaster life.
Last night, reports of the former England and Spurs midfielder being taken to a hospital left fans fearing the worst. After being found by a friend in his bedroom at home in Poole, Dorset, he was found semi-conscious and is now stable and recovering in an acute medical unit.
After Gazza said to us, “I feel better than I have in years,” the health set-back was surmounted. He went on to explain why he had put so much effort into his new book, saying, “I hope I am at the point where I can look back on everything I’ve been through in my life with a different – and more positive perspective. I believe it’s time for people to come to know the real me after so many years in the spotlight.
For the first time in May, Mirror Snapper Rowan Griffiths captured his footballing hero Gazza and commented, “He looks fantastic. Rowan, who is a member of a hotel in Didcot, Oxfordshire, recalls Gazza’s ability to hold the room. He inquired as to how we all were, and he was very sincere. He appeared very well while on a speaking tour. I was a fan since I was a child when he first started out, so I was relieved to see him look so good. One of my youth’s heroes was him.
Steve Foster, Paul’s friend, who found the star, said today, “He would like to thank everyone for the support he’s received so far from so many old friends who wish him well and want to see him return to his best.” After discovering Paul, Foster drove him to the hospital, saying, “Paul is in the best possible place at this moment. He is anticipated to stay there for a while.
Earlier this year he showed his character as he confessed to a gaffe – almost letting a phone call from The Pope pass him by, before greeting him with a remarkable opening line. Speaking on The Rest Is Football, Gascoigne recalled: “It wasn’t just [fans and journalists], it was from famous people as well.
“I was getting calls from George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman, Oprah Winfrey. “I was getting calls from everywhere. The best one was I got told there was a phone call and I said ‘tell them to f*** off, I’m training’. They said ‘you better take the phone call’. I said, ‘no I’m training, tell them I’ll call them after my training’. They said it was important so I said, ‘who the f*** is it?’
They claimed John Paul II, the Pope. When I called His Holiness, Gascoigne said, “Hi Pope, you alreet? “, Gascoigne said, “In a hilarious way, he let loose.” What do you want, I asked the Pope. He declared, “Come to the Vatican, I want to meet you.”
“My father is Catholic,” my father said. It was unbelievable when we visited and saw The Pope. He continued, “When you’re getting calls like that and then I’m getting Mike Tyson coming to Dunston, where I live, wanting to come to my 40th birthday party.” Simply put, it was crazy.
Gazza is one of England’s best-loved sports stars having shot to fame during the 1980s and 1990s. After coming through the youth ranks at local club Newcastle United, he made his debut for the Magpies in April 1985. He scored 25 times in 104 games for the Toon before moving to Spurs.
In north London, he helped Tottenham to the FA Cup in 1991 and spent four years with the club before moving to Lazio. He later represented Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Burnley.
However, Gazza won the hearts of the country with England. He made his Three Lions debut under Bobby Robson in September 1988, where he would play until the semi-finals of Italia 90.
After picking up a booking against West Germany which would have kept him out of the final, Gary Lineker alerted the dugout to the fact Gascoigne was becoming upset in one of football’s most enduring images. Ultimately England were beaten on penalties and did not make the final, leading to Gazza crying on the pitch as he kissed the badge on his shirt and took the acclaim of the travelling supporters.
He was also part of the England side that reached the semi-finals of Euro 96 on home soil, again losing to Germany on penalties. His goal against Scotland in the group stage is one of the most famous in Three Lions history. But he was controversially overlooked for the 1998 World Cup in France by Glenn Hoddle, ending his international career with 10 goals in 57 appearances.
Source: Mirror
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