England's Italia 90 squad – Racism scandal, tragedy, bankruptcy and £7m payday
For supporters of a certain vintage, the 1990 World Cup evokes special memories and will stand the test of time as an iconic tournament for England.
Italia 90 saw England reach the semi-finals under the guidance of Sir Bobby Robson, where they were beaten by eventual winners West Germany on penalties. It was a hugely talented group of players that came together in Italy with the aim of repeating the heroics of 1966.
It wasn’t to be, but they certainly had a good go of it, with Gary Lineker banging in the goals, Paul Gascoigne putting in some dazzling performances and, unfortunately, Chris Waddle skying his penalty in Turin. You likely know all that already, but what became of the likely lads?
Here Mirror Football takes a look through the squad and tells you what they are up to these days, 33 years on.
Peter Shilton
Shilton retired from international duty after Italia 90 with 125 caps to his name. The legendary goalkeeper tried his hand at being a player-manager with Plymouth and called time on his playing career in 1997. He appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and, after overcoming a gambling addiction, has settled into after dinner speaking, aged 74. He hasn’t been shy in expressing his views on Brexit, or more recently female football pundits.
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Gary Stevens
Stevens, who played for Everton, Rangers and Tranmere, won 46 caps for England. He is now a physiotherapist and lives near Perth in Western Australia with his family. His profile on his work website says he enjoys birdwatching and coaches his son’s soccer team at Rockingham City Football club.
Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce works in the football media (Jon Hobley/Getty Images)Pearce has managed Manchester City, England Under-21s and the GB Olympic side and worked as David Moyes ’ assistant at West Ham. He left the Hammers in 2022 and is now doing after-dinner speaking and media work with talkSPORT.
Neil Webb
Webb retired in 1997 and has had “numerous” jobs since then. He’s currently working as a delivery driver and sold his first-ever England shirt and cap in the summer to raise funds. He told The Sun : "I’ve had numerous jobs over the last few years and at the moment I am a delivery driver. My generation earned good money and you could buy a nice house, a nice car and put your children through private education. But it is a different world for today’s players. I always knew I would have to work after I played.”
Des Walker
He was capped 59 times for England and made just under 800 career appearances between 1983 and 2005. Walker, whose son Tyler Walker plays for Lincoln, was in a coaching role at Derby County recently. He played in a charity match for mental health charity Walking’s Brilliant in the summer.
Terry Butcher
Terry Butcher's son, Christopher, died in 2017 (ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty Images)Butcher went into management, becoming player-manager at Coventry and Sunderland and also taking charge of Motherwell, Sydney, Brentford, Hibernian, Inverness, Newport and the Philippines. He was hit hard by the death of his 35-year-old son Christopher in 2017. Christopher had served with the Royal Artillery in Afghanistan and, an inquest later heard he had turned to drugs as he battled Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Bryan Robson
Robson had stints in charge of Bradford, West Brom and Sheffield United before a two-year stint as Thailand manager. Now 66 years old , he is a global ambassador at Manchester United, where he made his name as a player.
Chris Waddle
Chris Waddle works as a co-commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live (Stu Forster/Getty Images)Waddle kept playing for a long time before trying his hand as a player-manager at Burnley for a short period. He played until his early 40s in non-league and turned out for Hallam as recently as 2013. Now aged 62, Waddle was tipped to play for Hallam in the 2023/24 season. He has gone into the media and works as a pundit for BBC Radio 5 Live.
Peter Beardsley
England’s No9 from Italia 90 had spells at Bolton and Fulham before ending his career aged 38 at Melbourne Knights. Beardsley has had various coaching and academy roles at Newcastle, but was banned from football for 32 weeks after being found guilty of three charges of racially abusing black players while coach of the Newcastle under-23 team in September 2019. A Football Association panel found that Beardsley had called a player of black African origin a monkey and had told black players “you should be used to that” on a team‑building trip to Go Ape.
Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker is a host of Match of the Day (BBC)A fixture of the football media. Lineker presents Match of the Day for the BBC and hosts a podcast alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. His role at the BBC came under question earlier in 2023 in a furore over freedom of speech, but he was later reinstated.
John Barnes
Barnes does some media work as a pundit. He has struggled financially in recent years and the 60-year-old former winger recently saw yet another bankruptcy petition lodged by tax officials dismissed by a judge following a settlement.
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Paul Parker
Parker made his name at Manchester United and went on to manage Chelmsford and Welling United before becoming a pundit. He has developed a reputation for giving ferocious takes on United, which can be read here.
Chris Woods
Chris Woods is Scotland's goalkeeping coach (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)He retired in 1998 and went into goalkeeper coaching, working at Everton, Manchester United and West Ham alongside David Moyes. Woods is now the goalkeeping coach for the Scotland national team under Steve Clark.
Mark Wright
Wright, who shares a name with a reality TV star, runs a company which organises charity football events and corporate functions. He also regularly appears on Liverpool ’s in-house television station LFC TV and works as an after-dinner speaker.
Tony Dorigo
Dorigo works as a pundit, co-commentator and keynote speaker in the football media. He is also an ambassador for Leeds United and writes a column on the club for the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Steve McMahon
Another player who has gone into the media. McMahon went on to work as a pundit in Asia following a managerial stint with Perth Glory in 2005. A proud Scouser, he played for and captained both Everton and Liverpool.
David Platt
David Platt coaches his son's amateur side (Getty Images)Platt went into coaching, taking charge of England’s Under-21s and also working under Roberto Mancini at Manchester City. He took charge of FC Pune City in the Indian Premier League in 2015, but is now found in rural Cheshire coaching his son’s amateur side. He is the co-founder of Golazzo Group, a company which sells football equipment.
Steve Hodge
Hodge lives in the Midlands and works as a commentator for BBC Radio Nottingham. But he doesn’t need to work, having sold Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ Argentina shirt for £7.14million. He swapped shirts with Maradona after the game in 1986 and, after loaning it to the National Football Museum, sold it at auction in 2022. That moment changed his life and inspired his biography, which is entitled 'The Man With Maradona's Shirt'.
Paul Gascoigne
Paul Gascoigne has been open about his addiction issues (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Gascoigne has very publicly battled alcoholism since retiring and recently appeared in Channel Four show ‘Scared of the Dark’. He also appeared in ‘Vinnie Jones In The Country’ recently, where he opened up on his addiction issues. “Thing is, once I start, that’s it,” he said. “I cannot stop, it’s a nightmare. It wasn’t so much the drink, it was the consequences.”
Trevor Steven
The former midfielder has a career in the media, working as a pundit, speaker and newspaper columnist. He also joined construction technology provider Causeway Technologies in 2020. Causeway works with Everton in the Community – the club’s official charity.
Steve Bull
Bull is a club legend with Wolves, where he works as an ambassador. He writes a column for the Express & Star and runs a supper club, where the man himself dines with lucky Wolves fans. The 58-year-old also runs the Steve Bull Foundation, which supports disadvantaged people.
David Seaman
David Seaman works in the football media (Sky News)Like his old Arsenal team-mate Tony Adams, the former goalkeeper has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing. He works in the media in his day job, providing punditry for a variety of outlets. Seaman remains close to Arsenal and has been invited to the training ground to work with the current crop of goalkeepers.
Dave Beasant
Beasant was called up to Italia 90 after an injury to Seaman. He has worked as a goalkeeping coach with Stevenage and Reading since retiring. Back in 2015 he made headlines after being named on Stevenage’s bench at the age of 56.
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