DID GAZZA TOUCH THE BALL? NO, HE FOULED ME!
Thomas Berthold – the man on the end of THAT tackle at Italia 90 – recalls unforgettable semi-final
THOMAS Berthold begins to reel off the names. Gary Lineker and Stuart Pearce both quickly come to mind. ‘The 1990 English squad was full of outstanding players,’ he tells
Sportsmail. Then the list stops, one red-faced omission staring through tear-glazed eyes and 30 years of hurt.
‘Ah of course, Paul Gascoigne!’ he adds. ‘The most talented player in the English squad. Of course, of course…’
You can forgive the splintered memory. Thirty years have passed since West Germany beat England in the Italia 90 semi-finals.
Back home, that night became just another footnote as Berthold and his side tasted triumph at a time of national reunification.
But together, he and Gascoigne helped bring people together on English shores too.
Three decades on, Berthold recalls a 30-second flashpoint forever imprinted on the English psyche. ‘I remember that he got booked for a foul,’ said the defender, now 55. ‘It was a foul!’
If one night in Turin came to symbolise that summer of redemptive heartbreak for Bobby Robson’s side, one 23-year-old embodied the emotions above all. And one image tugged heart strings more than any other.
‘Horrendous,’ Gazza later reflected. ‘Probably one of the saddest moments of my career.’ Eyes watering, lip quivering, heart shattered, Gascoigne looked back towards Berthold.
Moments earlier, deep into extra time, England’s No 19 over-ran the ball. Stretching, he slid into a tackle. Even before Berthold hit the floor, Gazza’s hands were up in a plea for mercy.
Berthold rolled over. Once, twice, three times and then clutched his left ankle. The West Germany bench rose as one.
Gazza leaned over Berthold, grabbing his head, even sticking his finger into the defender’s mouth. When he eventually looked up, he saw the yellow card which ruled him out of the final. Gazza’s world crumbled.
‘Have a word,’ Lineker told the England bench.
Gascoigne rallied but, after 120 minutes, nothing could separate the teams. Before penalties, his emotions spilled out once more.
‘You’ve been absolutely magnificent,’ manager Robson told him.
Far too distraught even to take his allotted penalty, Gazza watched as misses by Pearce and Chris Waddle ended England’s dream. Cue more tears.
Four days later, Berthold helped the Germans beat Argentina in the final. To this day, Gascoigne insists he didn’t touch the defender. Back in 2002, he said: ‘He dived, as Germans do, to get me booked.’
Here, Berthold gives his side of the story. ‘I am not a diver, I am not Jurgen Klinsmann!’ he says. ‘Nobody is rolling to get an opponent player booked… it was a clear yellow card.’
He adds: ‘Did he touch the ball? No… maybe now, in 2020, or maybe at the next World Cup, for such a foul you get a red card.’
Berthold says Gascoigne can have few complaints. ‘It’s part of the game. He was an experienced player,’ he adds.
The momentary rush of blood and emotional outpouring showed how fragile he was too. ‘Especially in the semi-final he should be a bit careful — especially when you already have one yellow card,’ adds Berthold. ‘There’s always a risk of getting one in a tough match. Then you are out for the final.
‘The rules are the same for everybody. I like hot-headed players but you should be under control.’
The pair never played against each other again. Nor have they spoken about that tackle.
So what would Berthold say to him if their paths did cross?
‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘Hello, how are you, my friend?
‘I didn’t follow all the media in England about this match, about the tackle, about the booking.’
Why would he? For the last 30 years Berthold has enjoyed the acclaim of winning the World Cup just as East and West Germany became one. ‘It’s always the greatest achievement you can have,’ he says. ‘Coming back to Frankfurt airport, we realised the importance.’
Despite defeat, Italia 90 remains one of English football’s enduring summers, too. For many, Turin was Gascoigne’s crowning glory at the end of a month when he came of age. A troubled genius who lacked discipline, but whose boisterous brilliance gave England cause to fall back in love with football after an era of violence and mediocrity. Only his own fragility, it seemed, could separate him from greatness. Even en route to Italy, he was yet to start a competitive international and was the subject
of a police investigation over an alleged punch-up. His selection was a gamble, but Robson was desperate for inspiration after years of uninspiring results.
‘I did not really know a lot about him,’ Berthold admits. In the following weeks, however, both England and their new talisman came in from the shadows of Sardinia to take centre stage.
Berthold’s abiding memory of the tussle in Turin came following the shoot-out, when the teams swapped shirts.
‘Somebody was chanting because England were brave men and they played a great game,’ he says. That must have felt like scant consolation for the England team after Gascoigne’s tears.
After beating Argentina, Berthold partied until 9.30am — when Germany left for the flight home.
England enjoyed their own homecoming bash, too.
Gascoigne infamously wore a plastic chest, fitted with fake breasts and a ‘Gazza’ tattoo.
He won Sports Personality of the Year and so began his second life full of mountains and valleys, including nearly three years at Rangers.
More recently, it seems the choppy waters in Gascoigne’s life have begun to calm. ‘He’s been calling me a lot lately and he does seem okay,’ Lineker says.
‘I have a lot of respect for him as a player,’ Berthold says. ‘It would be more sad to reach the final and not be able to participate. But they went out in any case.’