Tony Cascarino

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. 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 later revealed 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. While with the Kent side, he scored 110 goals in all competitions, and was named in the PFA Third Division Team of the Year for three successive seasons. 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. Cascarino signed for Aston Villa for £1.1m in March 1990, then a record transfer fee for the club. 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 teammate Liam Brady. 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…

Cascarino, who was born in England, represented the Republic of Ireland—qualifying through his adoptive Irish grandparents, Michael O'Malley, who was from Westport, County Mayo and Grace O'Malley, who was from Waterford. 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.

Irish citizenship controversy

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 was not a blood relative to his Irish grandparents. 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…

International

Scores and results list Republic of Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cascarino goal.

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.