Welcome to Soccer 101. My name is Ryan Bailey and I'd like to start off by telling you a story.

It's November 1994 and as a treat for my 11th birthday, I'm taken to the London location of

the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood. I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger's leather get-up from Terminator

2 being on the wall, a black and yellow Harley Davidson used by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky 3

being there, and the kind of American-style food you couldn't really get at many other

places in the UK at the time. On that night of my 11th birthday, after standing on a chair and

having a cake presented to me with the happy birthday song, the waiter leaned over to our table.

I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Paul Gascoigne is sitting a few booths away, he says.

Go over with your menu and he might sign it for you.

At this point in 94, Paul Gascoigne is by some distance, the most famous and celebrated

soccer player in the UK. He's a national hero, a tabloid mainstay, and well known for his

love of nightlife. After dazzling on the World Cup stage and inciting Gaza mania, more on that later,

he made a high profile move to the biggest league in the world at the time, Syria.

On this night, Gaza probably should have been in Rome,

recovering from the broken leg he suffered trying to tackle Alessandro Nestra in training seven months previously.

But he was in London and I'll never forget what I saw when I worked up the nerve to approach his table.

Gascoigne with a beer bottle in his hand sitting beside a large, unathletic man.

I would later learn this man was his childhood friend, drinking partner,

and minder of sorts, a man called Jimmy Five Bellies. As his nickname suggested, he wasn't slim.

On the table, there was no evidence the pair had eaten any food. Instead, the large booth table

was strewn with empty glasses and empty beer bottles and also a pile of

cash sitting in front of Gaza. It had 50 pound bills in it, which I'd never even seen before.

...