Tony Cascarino

Tony Cascarino
Personnel
Surname	Anthony Guy Cascarino
birthday	September 1, 1962
place of birth	St. Paul's Cray , Orpington , Kent ,  England
position	Center Forward
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1982-1987	Gillingham FC	219 (78)
1987-1990	Millwall FC	105 (42)
1990-1991	Aston Villa	46 (11)
1991-1992	Celtic Glasgow	24 0(4)
1992-1994	Chelsea FC	40 0(8)
1994-1997	Olympique Marseille	84 (61)
1997-2000	AS Nancy	109 (44)
2000	Red Star 93	2 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1985-1999	Ireland	88 (19)
1 Only league games are given.

Anthony Guy "Tony" Cascarino (born September 1, 1962 in St. Paul's Cray , Orpington , Kent , England ) is a former Irish football player . The center forward , who is particularly strong at the head, played for various British and French clubs in the 1980s and 1990s and played for the Irish national team in 88 international matches between 1985 and 1999 .

Athletic career

At a young age there was little to suggest a career as a professional footballer for Tony Cascarino when he played for the small club called Crockenhill FC in the Kent Counties League in his late teens and had made a futile attempt, Millwall FC to convince of his abilities. When he finally got the chance to move to Gillingham FC in 1982 , Cascarino gave up a "middle-class" career as a hairdresser. Particularly noteworthy was the type of expense allowance that Crockenhill FC received - instead of a transfer fee, only a set of new tracksuits (worth around £ 120) and corrugated iron to repair the stadium changed hands in January 1982.

Advancement from the lower classes (1982-90)

In the second half of the 1981/82 season Cascarino came straight away to 24 league games for third-rate Gillingham FC. He played his first professional game in February 1982 at Burnley FC and scored the first goal during his third appearance in a 6-1 win over Wimbledon FC . Cascarino spent five more seasons in the English Third Division . There he developed into a consistent goalscorer and despite his membership in a third-rate club, he also played his first international match for the Irish selection against Switzerland on September 11, 1985 (the qualifying game for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico ended with 0-0 goals ). The highlights of his time at Gillingham were the FA Cup duel against Everton FC in the 1983/84 season - the game against the first division club was only lost after two replays - and the championship final spurt in the 1986/87 season when the winning goal by Cascarino against Bolton Wanderers led Gillingham FC in the play-off games for promotion to the Second Division . In the last games for the "Gills" Cascarino and his team failed after a victory in the play-off semifinals against Sunderland FC at Swindon Town .

For £ 225,000 Cascarino joined Millwall FC in June 1987 . He fulfilled a childhood dream at the second attempt, because he had been with this club since early childhood. He made his debut on August 15, 1987 for the second division team in a 1-1 away draw at Middlesbrough FC and advanced to a central player in the team with 20 league goals in the 1987/88 season, which finally made it to the top English division at the end of the season succeeded. His good form also ensured that, after a two-and-a-half year absence, he was part of the Irish national team again from May 1988 and was then appointed to the squad for the Euro 1988 in Germany . In the tournament itself, however, he only made two short appearances against the USSR and the Netherlands as a substitute for Frank Stapleton in the respective final stages .

Millwall FC stood with Cascarino in its first first division season in the club's more than 100-year history and was able to line up in this first season in 1988/89 in tenth place in the secured midfield. Cascarino contributed 13 hits to this success. However, nine more hits by the striker could not prevent the crash at the bottom of the table and before the end of the 1989/90 season Cascarino moved to Aston Villa in March 1990 .

Aston Villa (1990-91)

In the remaining games of the season Cascarino came to ten games and was able to win the runner-up with his new club. This was followed by Cascarino's first appearance in a world championship tournament at the 1990 World Cup in Italy . In the first two group matches against England and Egypt he was in the starting line-up. He then lost this regular place again and was only substituted in during the game in the last group game against the Netherlands as well as in the knockout games against Romania and most recently Italy . He converted a penalty in the round of 16 during the ultimately successful penalty shoot-out before he and his team lost 1-0 to the hosts in the quarter-finals.

The 1990/91 season turned out to be disappointing for Cascarino and Aston Villa. The reigning runner-up fell under the new coach Jozef Vengloš in the table cellar and the nine goals of the season should be the last for Cascarino in the wine-red and sky-blue dress.

Celtic and Chelsea (1991-94)

In the 1991/92 season Cascarino moved to Scotland to Celtic Glasgow . However, the stay there should only be short-lived. Although he completed a total of 24 league games in a short time, he never found a good performance in the Celtic team with just four goals, which at that time was also clearly in the shadow of local rivals Glasgow Rangers . Fans there dubbed him the donkey with little sensitivity . The Scottish adventure for Cascarino ended in February 1992, and he finally returned to London . There he was hired by Chelsea .

Cascarino could not meet the high expectations of the "Blues". After his first goal in his debut on February 8, 1992 against Crystal Palace (1: 1), he was only supposed to score one more goal by the end of the season and the alleged lack of technology caused great resentment among his own appendage - especially the quarter-final defeat in the FA Cup against the second division relegation candidate FC Sunderland for widespread criticism regarding his exploitation of opportunities. In the summer of 1992 he also suffered a serious knee injury that should put him out of action for the main part of the 1992/93 season . Cascarino's prospects at Chelsea also worsened when coach Ian Porterfield signed three strikers. Until February 1993, his way into the team was blocked until Porterfield had to vacate his chair and was replaced by David Webb's interim solution . Under Webb, Cascarino came back more and more missions and when he drew attention to himself with good performances in preparation for the 1993/94 season , he seemed to have good cards under the new coach Glenn Hoddle . In fact, after three goals in a preparatory game against Tottenham Hotspur, he had fought his way into the starting line-up and showed good early form. However, a mixture of rapid loss of form and bad luck in the form of a series of bar and post hits ensured that Cascarino left the team just as quickly and at the end of the season moved to France to Olympique Marseille free of charge . He played his last game for Chelsea in the 4-0 defeat in the FA Cup final against Manchester United and was only twelve minutes on the field after being substituted on.

At the 1994 World Cup in the United States , he was part of the Irish squad, but only made a brief appearance in the round of 16 against the Netherlands. After his substitution in the 74th minute when the score was 0: 2, he could not prevent his team from being eliminated.

Successes in France (1994-2000)

Olympique Marseille had just been relegated to the second division for two years due to a bribery scandal, but Cascarino nonetheless got on exceptionally well with the new team. With 31 league goals in 38 league games, he developed into the top scorer in Ligue 2 in the 1994/95 season , as well as a year later with 30 goals in 37 matches. In addition, he and his team won the second division championship in the first year and personally the title of best second division player of the past season. With the help of the runner-up behind SM Caen , Cascarino rose with "OM" after the end of the 1995/96 season in the top French league (" Ligue 1 ").

In the elite class, however, Cascarino missed his previous accuracy. He scored no goal in the first nine league games and moved to AS Nancy in December 1996 . There he immediately scored a 3-0 win against AC Le Havre , but although he performed well, he was relegated with his club from Lorraine . This was followed by a direct resurgence and Cascarino should make a name for himself as an experienced striker, especially in his last two first division years, on whose side the young attacking players from Nancy oriented themselves. At the age of 38 he scored another 15 league goals and was able to improve his personal record in French Ligue 1 again.

The last career stage in Tony Cascarino's footballing life was the lower class club Red Star 93 from Paris . However, after just a few weeks and a series of disappointing results, Cascarino decided to put an end to his professional career. He had already ended his international career in November 1999 when he missed qualifying for the European Championship in a 0-0 win in Turkey . In total, he scored 19 goals in 88 international matches and his headball strength was always in demand when midfield had to be bridged with high and long balls and / or when a crowbar was needed in the last minutes of the game when he was behind.

After football

After the end of his playing career, Cascarino presented the previous evening's radio program "Talksport Radio" at the side of Patrick Kinghorn and wrote columns both in the British newspaper The Times and in the Irish magazine Hotpress . He also secured a larger TV presence as a semi-professional poker player and commentator.

Cascarino received special attention with his autobiography entitled "Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino", which received good marks, especially from book critics. Compared to many other athlete biographies, he spoke with great openness about his passion for games and the self-doubts that had accompanied him throughout his career. In addition to the dark side of fame and the effects on his private life, his descriptions of his time at Olympique Marseille made headlines. In it he described that a personal physician of club president Bernard Tapie administered him and numerous teammates an injection with an unknown substance. The physiotherapist at the time certified this as harmless and limited the effect to an " adrenaline rush ". After receiving the injection, Cascarino described himself as “sharper, more energetic and hungrier for the ball”. In an anecdote, Cascarino also stated in the autobiography that he was a “cheat” and “fake Irishman” when it came to the Irish national team. He justified this by saying that he owed his eligibility to play for Ireland primarily to his Irish grandfather. However, when his mother revealed to him in 1996 that he had been adopted, this blood relationship to his grandfather "ceased to exist". Objectively, however, this personal assessment was not entirely true, as he had obtained the right to Irish citizenship after his adoption and thus fulfilled the requirements.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Cheap As Chips # 1: Tony Cascarino"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Fan Banta)  
2. ↑ "Tony Cascarino" ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Gillingham FC) 
3. ^ Alain Pécheral: La grande histoire de l'OM. Des origines à nos jours. Ed. Prolongations, o. O. 2007 ISBN 978-2-916400-07-5 , p. 325
4. ↑ Pécheral, pp. 326 and 472
5. ^ "Books of the Year: The reading list" (Guardian Unlimited)
6. ↑ Doping in football: hotter and hungrier (SPIEGEL Online).

Web links

• Datasheet of L'Equipe