Former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne arrived in Beijing yesterday, hoping to revive his soccer career with a Chinese club.
"Am I confident? Yeah, I'm confident," Gascoigne said on arrival at Beijing's Capital Airport.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"My physique is good. My football is good. I don't have any problems," said the 35-year-old, who has been without a club since leaving first division Burnley at the end of last season.
He was due to try out with first division side Liaoning Bodao later this week at the team's winter training camp on the southern island province of Hainan, Liaoning chairman Cao Guojun said.
Cao said Gascoigne had contacted his team via the agent for former Liaoning midfielder Li Tie, now playing for Everton in the English Premier League.
"Gascoigne has been around a long time. We understand him very well," said Cao.
But he said no deal had been reached.
"For him, the first thing is whether or not he can adapt to our game. After all, he is getting old," said Cao. "We're looking more at his capabilities than at his reputation."
"If he can deal with everything, it is possible we'll sign him."
Roll of honor
Gascoigne won 57 caps for his country.
He has played for Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Burnley and helped England reach the semifinals of both the 1990 World Cup in Italy, famously shedding tears at their exit on penalties to Germany, and also of Euro '96.
However, the ball skills and vision which made him probably the most gifted player of his generation were also held back by a volatile temper and sporadic bouts of heavy drinking.
Cao could not confirm foreign and Chinese media reports saying Gascoigne could try out with four other clubs in China.
The ex-England star's possible move to the Chinese league would be the latest football exchange between China and England.
Three Chinese internationals now play in the Premier League, including two at Everton, who have a shirt sponsorship deal with Chinese mobile phone maker Kejian.
Liaoning Bodao plays in Beijing. Cao moved his club to the capital from its hometown of Shenyang, in Liaoyang province, last year.
"Gazza" was once regarded as one of the biggest talents in world soccer, but is now struggling to find someone who will take him on.
He has slimmed down in order to get a job and told reporters before he left for China that he was ready to play ball.
``I've trained really, really hard. I had other options but things didn't go right so this is a challenge for me and I can't wait.
``I can't wait to get back on the football field. It's been a while. ... And now this gives me an opportunity for me to get playing again, back on the field and hopefully proving a few people wrong again.
``This is an opportunity for me to get out of an England and go over there [China] and enjoy myself,'' he said at Heathrow airport before boarding his flight.
``I'd like to offer the game what Paul Gascoigne can do on the pitch and that's hopefully play good football and entertain the fans.''
He hasn't been so lucky on his other departures from England.
Gascoigne flew to Washington to try to persuade DC United to take him on but the Major League Soccer club was far from impressed by his physical state. Although he had lost a lot of weight, it had left him weak and short of pace.
Roll of shame
Since then he has been linked with modest clubs such as Gillingham, Exeter City, Colchester and non-league Carshalton, Scottish teams Dundee and Partick Thistle and even a Maltese club, Marsax Lokk.
It hasn't helped that ``Gazza'' has parted company with his agents and is now represented by his long-time drinking pal, Jimmy ``Five Bellies'' Gardner.
Despite being blessed with a phenomenal talent, he has a shaky temperament which has cost him long spells on the sidelines and his association with alcohol has become legendary.
When he scored a standout goal for England against Scotland at the 1996 European Championship -- chipping the ball over a defender and striking it home on the volley -- he lay down on his back for what became known as the ``dentist's chair'' celebration.
That came from the English players' drinking pose of sitting back as if in a dentist's chair and having drinks poured down the throat by teammates.
It was during that time that Gascoigne's marriage was falling off the rails. His wife, Sheryl, was interviewed by the newspapers with her face bruised and saying that he had beaten her in a drunken rage.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
Marco Bezzecchi yesterday demolished the Australian MotoGP lap record in setting the standard during second practice, becoming the first rider ever to dip below 1 minute, 27 seconds at Phillip Island. The Italian, who won the Indonesia sprint race two weeks ago before slamming into world champion Marc Marquez during the grand prix, blazed around the waterfront circuit in 1 minute, 26.580 seconds on his Aprilia. His time shattered the previous best of 1 minute, 27.246 seconds set by Jorge Martin in 2023. Not content with that, he then bettered it with a sizzling 1 minute, 26.492 seconds. That left Bezzecchi 0.291 seconds
RSS