If you played football in the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s and ever found yourself sharing a dressing room with Paul Gascoigne, you knew you had to have your wits about you.
The former England star’s love for a prank was legendary - so much so that back in 2021, we compiled our 50 best Gazza stories, which is a miscellany of tales involving ostriches, commandeered public transport and diplomatic incidents.
While most of these were done for Gascoigne’s amusement, he also knew when a dressing room stunt could benefit his team.
Gazza on his best pranks
One such example of this is a story Gazza tells us about a novel way he eased the tension before a derby clash with Roma during his time at Lazio.
“We were all s**tting ourselves about the match,” he tells FourFourTwo. “So I went to a pet shop, bought a little mouse and put it in the top pocket of my Lazio jacket.”
“Dino Zoff was doing a team talk and this f**king mouse kept on coming out onto my shoulder.
“I was like, ‘F**k off’ and kept on putting it back down again. Then the president came in and went, ‘Right guys, I want to give you five grand if you win today.’
“I said, ‘Make it 10 grand, because I have to pay the mouse five grand.’ I scored that game, then afterwards I found the mouse in the dressing room, said ‘Cheers’ and pushed it back in my pocket.”
So why did Gazza enjoy pulling pranks so much on his pals and team-mates throughout his career?
“I’d get bored,” he says matter of factly.
And which one was his favourite? “I caught this snake, put it in a plastic bag and put it in Roberto Di Matteo’s pocket after training.
“Then I asked if he could lend me some money, so he’d put his hand in his pocket…”
Paul Gascoigne: Eight (published by Reach Sport) is on sale now in print, ebook and audiobook
