Энтони Каскарино: Футболшының өмірбаяны және мансабы

Association football player (born 1962)

Anthony Guy Cascarino (born 1 September 1962) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker for various British and French clubs and internationally for the Republic of Ireland national team, with whom he competed in UEFA Euro 1988 and two World Cups in 1990 and 1994. Since retirement, he has presented on TalkSPORT radio and written for both The Times and Ireland's Hot Press magazine. He has worked for both Sky Sports in England and TV3 and Today FM in Ireland. He was a winning participant in the fourth season of the Celebrity Bainisteoir reality television series.

Cascarino was born in St Paul's Cray Kent on 1 September 1962 to an Italian father and an English mother. Prior to his professional football career he worked as a hairdresser and labourer.

Cascarino, who was born in England, represented the Republic of Ireland—qualifying through his adoptive Irish grandfather, Michael O'Malley, who was from Westport, County Mayo. He was also eligible to play for both Scotland and Italy because of his Scottish and Italian descent. He made his international debut against Switzerland in September 1985, during Ireland's ill fated qualification campaign for the 1986 World Cup. Cascarino would go on to feature for Ireland in three major tournaments: Euro 1988, the 1990 World Cup and the 1994 World Cup. His last international game came against Turkey in late 1999, as Ireland failed to reach UEFA Euro 2000. He got into a brawl with a Turkish defender and left the pitch showing the scars of battle. This marked the end of an international career which had spanned 14 years at the highest level.

In October 2000, Cascarino was the subject of national newspaper headlines when extracts from his upcoming autobiography were published in the Sunday Mirror. In it, he revealed that his mother told him in 1996 that she was adopted and therefore wasn't a blood relative to his Irish grandfather. Cascarino said in his autobiography: "I didn't qualify for Ireland. I was a fraud. A fake Irishman". The FAI's Chief Executive Bernard O'Byrne stated that he was shocked by the announcement and Cascarino's former international manager Jack Charlton questioned why he came forward with the information. Cascarino revealed that Republic of Ireland teammate Andy Townsend had advised him to keep quiet about the situation. The Irish Independent reported that Cascarino was given a 'passport of restricted validity' in 1985 and that his mother's name, Theresa O'Malley, was in fact entered in the Foreign Births Register in the Department of Foreign Affairs prior to Cascarino's international debut for the Republic of Ireland.

Since retiring from football, Cascarino has become a semi professional poker player, having appeared in the television series Celebrity Poker Club and commentating on the PartyPoker Poker Den. He has become something of a cult figure and was referenced in the song "All Your Kayfabe Friends" by Welsh band Los Campesinos! where the singer tells that "You asked if I'd be anyone from history / Fact or fiction, dead or alive / I said I'd be Tony Cascarino, circa 1995." Cascarino joined talkSPORT as a pundit in 2002 and presented the afternoon Drive Time show with Patrick Kinghorn between 2003 and 2005. He was involved in an on air bust up with Kinghorn after the latter remarked that the married Cascarino had been "chasing that 21 year old around the office", which prompted Cascarino to lunge at Kinghorn and punch him. The pair had to be pulled apart by production staff. Cascarino left the station in 2005 but soon returned as a pundit and has co presented the Weekend Sports Breakfast since 2016. In 2011, he was a winning participant in the Celebrity Bainisteoir reality series. Managing Killeshin GAA Club of County Laois, Cascarino's club won the season 4 competition, beating Paul Gogarty's Oughterard team after extra time in the final. Cascarino entered into a relationship with his third wife, Jo, in 2009 and their son, Rocco, was born in 2015; they married in Mauritius in November 2019. The twin France women's national football team players Delphine and Estelle Cascarino are not related to Tony Cascarino, although they are often asked if they are: "I am often asked if I am from his family, that is not the case I know that he notably played for Nancy and that he is Irish. Me, I'm not Irish at all! (laughs)"

Cascarino produced an autobiography in 2000, Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino, which received great critical acclaim. The book detailed his love of gambling, particularly playing all forms of poker, and revealed that his career had been blighted by crippling self doubt, which he summarised as the "little voice". The book also candidly refers to his shame over his infidelities and of leaving his wife, Sarah and two sons, Michael and Teddy (who was named after Cascarino's former Millwall teammate Teddy Sheringham) and muses: " maybe, just maybe, I was so wrapped up in my newfound celebrity that I'd become immune to the suffering I was causing". He also revealed that during his time at Marseille, he and many other of the club's players were injected by club president Bernard Tapie's personal physician with an unknown substance. The physiotherapist at the time insisted the substance was legal and would provide an "adrenaline boost". Cascarino claimed that most players accepted the injections and that "it definitely made a difference: I felt sharper, more energetic, hungrier for the ball". He also later admitted suffering from depression.