Tony Cascarino

Cascarino was born in St Paul's Cray in South-East London 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.[2]

In their three seasons together at Millwall, Cascarino and Teddy Sheringham scored 99 goals between them.[3]

Cascarino joined Gillingham in 1982 from Crockenhill, and according to Cascarino Gillingham donated tracksuits and training equipment to Crockenhill in lieu of a transfer fee.[4] He made his professional debut on 2 February 1982 in a 1–0 away league defeat to Burnley. His first goal for the Kent side came in his home debut on 13 February 1982 against Wimbledon, scoring the last goal in a 6–1 win having replaced an injured Dean White as substitute. Cascarino would later reveal that having not expected to be named in the matchday squad, he had consumed a "double Wimpey and chips and a Knickerbocker Glory" just before kick-off.[5]

While with the Kent side he scored 110 goals in all competitions,[2] and was named in the PFA Third Division Team of the Year for three successive seasons.[6]

He went on to play for Millwall - the club he supported as a boy. Millwall had missed an opportunity to sign Cascarino as a youngster and subsequently paid the Gills £225,000 to secure his services.[7]

Cascarino signed for Aston Villa for £1.1m in March 1990, then a record transfer fee for the club.[8] His time with the Birmingham club was an unhappy one, and in July 1991 he signed for Celtic for a £1.1m fee, which was also a club record. In joining Celtic he was managed by his former agent and Ireland team mate Liam Brady.[9]

After failing to establish himself with the Glasgow side Cascarino returned to England in February 1992 to sign for Chelsea in a swap deal involving Tom Boyd. Cascarino scored on his debut three days later, a 1–1 league draw at home to Crystal Palace. However, his time with the side was beset by injuries, with him registering only 8 goals over 40 league appearances in two years.[10]

Cascarino signed for Marseille as a free agent in 1994. He ended as top scorer in the 1994–95 Ligue 2 season with 31 goals as the club won the league title but were prevented from promotion to Ligue 1 due to an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities and match-fixing scandals involving then-president Bernard Tapie. Cascarino, nicknamed "Tony Goal" by the Marseille Ultras,[11] repeated the feat the following season, scoring 30 goals as the club were promoted back to Ligue 1.

In December 1996 he signed for fellow Ligue 1 side Nancy, scoring a hat-trick in his second appearance, a 1–3 away win at Le Havre.[12] The side were relegated to Ligue 2, but Cascarino would win the title and promotion in his first full season with the club the next year. Cascarino holds the Ligue 1 record for oldest player to score a hat-trick, which he did while playing for Nancy in a 3–0 win over Stade Rennais at age 37 years and 31 days.[13][14] In May 2000 he was awarded the Medaille d'Or by the city of Nancy in recognition of his contribution to the side.[15]

Cascarino ended his career with Red Star 93 in the third tier of French football, but terminated his contract with the club in August 2000 after just two appearances. He was offered a contract to return to Nancy but refused.[16]

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.[17][18][19]

He made his international debut against Switzerland in September 1985, during Ireland's ill-fated qualification campaign for the 1986 World Cup.[20] Cascarino would go on to feature for Ireland in three major tournaments: Euro 1988, the 1990 World Cup and the 1994 World Cup.[21]

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.[22]

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."[27]

Cascarino joined talkSPORT as a pundit in 2002 and presented the afternoon Drive Time show with Patrick Kinghorn between 2003-2005. 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.[28] Cascarino left the station in 2005 but soon returned as a pundit and has co-presented the Weekend Sports Breakfast since 2016.[29]

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,[30] beating Paul Gogarty's Oughterard team after extra-time in the final.[31][32]

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.[33]

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:[34] "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)"[35]

Cascarino produced an autobiography in 2000, Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino,[36] which received great critical acclaim.[37]

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".[38] The book also candidly refers to his shame over his infidelities[39] 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[40] and that "it definitely made a difference: I felt sharper, more energetic, hungrier for the ball". He also later admitted suffering from depression.

Millwall

• Football League Second Division: 1987–88

Marseille

• Ligue 2: 1994–95

Nancy

• Ligue 2: 1997–98

Individual

• PFA Third Division Team of the Year: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87[6]
• Gillingham Player of the Season: 1986–87[41]

• List of Republic of Ireland international footballers born outside the Republic of Ireland

• Tony Cascarino at IMDb
• Tony Cascarino at Soccerbase
• Tony Cascarino Hendon Mob poker tournament results
• Tony Cascarino – French league stats at LFP – also available in French (archived)
• talkSPORT interview