Among the many attributes you need to make it as a top-level footballer are confidence and self-belief.
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It’s not the kind of profession that you stumble into, and those who do make it will usually have had their heart set on it since the first time they kicked a ball, and spent their childhood manifesting their future dreams.
A certain Paul Gascoigne - never a player who was short on confidence - was clearly no different.
Gazza on having the last laugh at his old school
When FourFourTwo ask him what the first moment he realised he had a special talent as a footballer was, he replies without hesitation.
“Seven years of age,” he tells us. Did he always know that he’d make it to the top? “Yeah,” he explains. “I came from a rough background, but when I was 14, I did my autograph during a geography lesson. The teacher asked what I was doing and I told him, ‘I’m signing my autograph, I want to be a professional footballer.’
“He said, ‘There’s only one in a million who make it.’ I said, ‘I’m going to f**king make it’ and got kicked out of the class.
“After the 1990 World Cup, I went back to the school and said, ‘Do you remember me, you f**king bastard!’”
Italia 90 saw Gazza become a household name with his spellbinding performances that helped England enjoy their best major tournament since the 1966 World Cup, while his tears in the semi-final defeat to West Germany showed off another layer of his personality.
Throughout his progression into adulthood, there was never any doubt where he was at his happiest. “When I put the boots on,” he says.
“It didn’t matter when it was – I enjoyed playing whether it was in front of 5,000 or f**king 95,000. I liked making people happy.”
As the stages he played on got bigger and bigger, he never felt the pressure that should have come along with it.
“No, I don’t know why,” he admits. “I’m a genius, probably… and a pain in the arse! I just knew I was good.
“I used to tell opposition players, ‘Good luck, I’ll be your worst f**king nightmare today.’”
Paul Gascoigne: Eight (published by Reach Sport) is on sale now in print, ebook and audiobook
