Tears of a clown

Paul Gascoigne was one of the most gifted midfielders England ever produced and could have become an all time great but for injuries and alcohol.

"Gazza" the clown off the pitch was capable of hiding spoons in sandwiches and smearing his teammates' underwear with boot polish - all for a laugh.

English midfielder Paul Gascoigne jumps over the attempted tackle of his Belgian counterpart Franky Van Der Elst during the World Cup second round soccer match between England and Belgium 26 June 1990 in Bologna. England won 1-0. AFP PHOTO

The pinnacle of his career came at the 1990 World Cup, where the young genius' vision and audacity were breathtaking.

There, the popularity he enjoyed in England hit new heights after the semi-final against Germany.

A yellow card during the highly charged match meant he would miss the final, and tears welled up in the youngsters eyes.

England went on to lose on penalites provoking yet more tears, but on his return to Britain he was greeted as a national hero and 'Gazzamania' was born.

Pointless

English midfielder Paul Gascoigne (R) tries to control the ball in front of Brazilian Leonardo, 10 June 1997 at the Parc des Princes in Paris, during the Tournoi de France soccer match between England and Brazil. AFP PHOTO/English midfielder Paul Gascoigne (R) tries to control the ball in front of Brazilian Leonardo, 10 June 1997 at the Parc des Princes in Paris, during the Tournoi de France soccer match between England and Brazil. AFP PHOTO/ERIC FEFERBERG

The agonizing aspect of Gascoigne's brilliance was his recklessness, no better illustrated than in the opening seconds of the 1991 English FA Cup final.

Playing for Tottenham, Gascoigne jumped into a crazy tackle on Nottingham Forest's Gary Childs, a collision Childs walked away from but which ruptured Gazza's knee ligaments.

At the time he was on the verge of a move to Italian club Lazio, who put the deal on ice for the year it took him to heal. Then, when he finally arrived in Rome, he promptly broke his leg in a freak training incident.

Scandal

British soccer player Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne of the Glasgow Rangers, accompanied by his newlywed wife Sheryl, walks through the London airport 02 July, reportedly en route to San Francisco, and then Hawaii for their honeymoon. AFP PHOTO

Controversy was never far away, and when details of his drunken antics and wife beating appeared in the tabloid newspapers, the public finally began to lose patience with him.

Perhaps his last flicker of greatness came during England's relatively successful European Championships in 1996, when he scored a sensational winner against Scotland.

He lit up Scottish football briefly in the late nineties with a stint at Glasgow Rangers wher he was voted the nation's footballer of the year in 1996 after leading the team to a League and Cup double.

Paul Gascoigne (R) of Everton and Manchester United's Paul Scholes chase the ball, during the F Carling Premiership match in Liverpool, 16 September 2000.

But even then his manager Walter Smith admitted that with Gazza you had to take the good with the bad.

The brilliant promise he showed as a youngster at Newcastle United had gone by the time he returned to England for spells at Middlesbrough, Everton and even second division Burnley.

A six-month stint in the Chinese second division in June 2003, a failed comeback to the Premiership with Wolverhampton that year and reports of financial difficulties will have saddened those who took great pleasure in his once joyful and brilliant play.