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26th September 2020
09:43am BST

Gascoigne had earned a reputation for playing pranks on teammates before he touched down in Italy. Adapting to a new lifestyle and culture in an unfamiliar country failed to dampen his mischievous streak. In one widely told story, former Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo, then a young midfielder at Lazio, fell victim to him. Gazza had found a snake in his garden and slipped it inside a coat pocket of the unsuspecting Di Matteo. Asking his young teammate if he could borrow some change, Gazza stood by and watched as a horrified Di Matteo reached inside his pocket and grasped the snake.
On another occasion, Gascoigne spied an opportunity to use the long tunnel at the entrance to Lazio's training ground for a more spontaneous trick. The team bus would pass through the tunnel as it arrived at and departed the training complex and was briefly plunged into darkness as it did. Utilising those few seconds of darkness, he removed his clothes so that when the bus emerged from the tunnel, then-manager Dino Zoff was presented with the sight of a completely naked Gazza standing before him.
Close to that same tunnel was also the setting for one of the more controversial practical jokes he would play on his Lazio teammates. There are several versions of the story with slightly different details in places, but all are in agreement that the team's players had been concerned that Gascoigne hadn't reported for training one morning. Then, by the roadside on the approach to the training ground, there he was, lying motionless and soaked in blood next to a crashed motorbike. Panicked by what they were seeing, several of the players instantly rushed to help him.
As they reached him, they quickly realised things weren't as serious as they'd initially appeared. Grinning, he quickly leapt to his feet. The 'blood' had actually been tomato sauce, and a laughing Gazza licked some of it away.
He had staged a potentially fatal motorcycle crash, all in the name of having a laugh.
Gascoigne left Lazio for Rangers in 1995. He returned to Rome in 2012, guest of honour at the Stadio Olimpico as Lazio hosted Spurs in a Europa League game. 'Welcome back Gazza. Lionheart, headstrong, pure talent, real man: still our hero,' read one of the banners unfurled in the crowd. The experience moved him to tears.
The injuries had limited what Gazza could do at Lazio but the club's supporters held fond memories of the occasions he did pull on their shirt. There is no doubt, also, that some of the stories about what he got up to away from the field of play left a lasting impression.
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