Magic, freedom and injury: recalling Gazza’s debut for Lazio 30 years on

Marking this anniversary is tough. Focus could be placed on the incredible atmosphere in the Stadio Olimpico, packed with Lazio fans and banners in English displaying “welcoming” slogans such as: “Gazza’s boys are here. Shag women. Drink beer”. Equally interesting is the vast build-up to his first appearance, the various transfer and injury sagas which resulted in a 498-day gap between his last game for Tottenham and his debut for Lazio.

There is a library’s worth of great writing about Gascoigne’s struggles, his cultural significance to the 1990s and the feelings he evokes in football fans. But so much has been written about Gazza that the collective memory of him as a footballer is beginning to fade. Here, we remember Paul Gascoigne the extraordinary footballer and the gifts he displayed on the pitch. Luckily, the 47 minutes he played for Lazio against Genoa on 27 September 1992 showed the sublime and the ridiculous of his footballing gold dust.

The game was Lazio’s fourth of the season. They had invested heavily in recent years, bringing in German attacking duo Thomas Doll and Karl-Heinz Riedle, as well as Ajax starlet Aron Winter. On paper, the talent in the squad was better than the three draws that preceded the Genoa fixture, so the pressure was on Gascoigne to ignite the season. Despite the team’s stuttering start, Giuseppe Signori was top of the Serie A goalscoring chart, helped by his brace against Sampdoria on the opening day, the game that launched the season as well as Channel 4’s Football Italia coverage.

Looking back at the Genoa game with fresh eyes, the most noticeable thing early in the match is how many times Gazza ties his shoelaces. His manic behaviour has been well documented – he says he was given