The footballer Paul Gascoigne has confirmed that producers are searching for an actor to portray him in a new film based on the memoir Gazza: My Story.

The film will come out after a World Cup documentary featuring the former England star, due in November. Gascoigne, a full-length non-fiction film, was released in 2015.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Gascoigne said: “There are backers looking at a film and trying to find someone to play me. I will guide them and read the script, it will be about my entire life. They will use my books.”

He suggested any film wouldn’t shy away from engaging with his off-pitch struggles with alcoholism. “Let’s face it,” he said. “I have nothing to hide. It has all been in the press, the good and bad.”

Gascoigne, who was an attacking midfielder for Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, became a national icon after weeping on the field after England’s 1990 World Cup semi-final defeat to Germany.

“It was incredible,” he said of his fame at the time. “Everywhere I went, everything was free. You would go to a restaurant, and it was expensive, but they gave you the meal for free. You don’t want to go back in case they think you are there to get something for free again.”