Granta 45 : Gazza Agonistes (Granta: the Magazine of New Writing)

Four years ago, Paul Gascoigne was an athlete of promise, but not a lot more. He had his distinctive features: he was gifted and entertaining and a bit goofy - one of the lads. But, apart from a few million English males, who knew about him really? After the summer of 1990, that hot, sticky summer when England lost to Germany in the World Cup, Paul Gascoigne was no longer Paul Gascoigne. The blubbery, wet, wrinkled face witnessed on the television sets of most of the world's population had changed that. He was Gazza now, as famous as the famous can ever become. What would it be like to be Gazza? What are the pressures? How do you cope with possessing 'this gift' - this ability to perform so exceptionally in an athletic contest (but one that you know will peak and then disintegrate)? Ian Hamilton is a poet and biographer. He is also a Tottenham Hotspur supporter - and a Gazza fan. And this is a fan's account: of a player's life and of the fan's obsession, of a sport celebrity and of our apparent need to have one. It is the story of Gazza: at play, on show, in the press, in pain, in distress - of Gazza, more sinned against than sinning, agonistes.