Chris Waddle

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Christopher ("Chris") Roland Waddle (born December 14, 1960) was a famous English footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.

1 Early career and Newcastle United
2 Spurs
3 Marseille and the 1990 World Cup
4 Sheffield Wednesday
5 Later career and coaching
6 Career statistics
7 External link

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Early career and Newcastle United

Born in Heworth, Gateshead, Waddle began his career as a midfielder at non-league Tow Law Town after being rejected at trials for Sunderland, Coventry City and Newcastle United. From working in a sausage factory he was eventually taken on by Newcastle in 1980 for £1,000. He did well at the club, scoring 46 goals in 169 appearances, and was picked for the England Under-21s. He was part of the team which won promotion to the top flight of English football in 1984, in an attacking trio of some quality alongside Kevin Keegan and Peter Beardsley.

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Spurs

The desire for greater success took him to Tottenham Hotspur in July 1985 for just under £700,000. Waddle played 173 games for Spurs and scored 42 goals as well as becoming a regular for England - he was in the squad which reached the quarter finals of the Template:Wc in Mexico linking up again with Beardsley and keegan.

After the World Cup he enjoyed his most productive season. He was a runner-up in the FA Cup in 1987 when Spurs were beaten by Coventry, while they also finished third in the League and got to the semi-finals of the League Cup. In the same year, Waddle found himself in the pop charts, with the single Diamond Lights making the UK Top 20 in a duet with Spurs and England team-mate Glenn Hoddle. In 1988, he was in the England side which lost all three group games in the European Championships.

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Marseille and the 1990 World Cup

In 1989 Olympic Marseilles paid £4.5 million for him, the third highest fee ever up to then, and in France he truly flourished. In a team of stars he was one of the top players, during his time there the club were French champions three times (1990, 1991 and 1992). He infamously missed a penalty in a shoot-out at the end of the Template:Wc semi-final against West Germany, ballooning the ball over the bar.

Waddle was seen as a strong contendor for the 1991 European Footballer of the Year. However the negatitive tactics of Red Star Belgrade in the 1991 European Cup Final, whose stated tactic was to play for penalties, caused Waddle to have a deeply ineffectual game. Red Star Belgrade went on to win the final and Jean Pierre Papin won European Footballer of the Year. Chris Waddle's performances in the 90-91 season were phenomenal, and probably the most complete season of an Englishman abroad since John Charles in the 50's and Kevin Keegan in the 70's. Because of English ignorance of European football, having just come out of the Heysel ban, and traditional arrogance towards French League Football Waddle's time at Marseille is often overlooked.

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Sheffield Wednesday

Waddle returned to England in July 1992 in a £1.25 million move to Sheffield Wednesday, then managed by Trevor Francis. The club reached both domestic cup finals in 1993 season (losing both to Arsenal - Waddle scored Wednesday's goal in the FA Cup final replay) and Waddle was voted PFA player of the year despite suffering a number of injuries.

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Later career and coaching

He was released by Wednesday in 1996 after more than 100 games and he played briefly for Scottish side Falkirk before being signed by Bradford City. He then joined Sunderland and then became player-manager of Burnley in 1997 but left after the club only escaped relegation on the last day of the season in 1998.

He then joined Torquay United for a short period from the beginning of the 1998/99 season until early November when the stresses of travelling from his Yorkshire residence to the south coast regularly became too much and he left the club.

He then joined the coaching staff at Wednesday before deciding to start playing again with non-league outfits Worksop Town and Glapwell. He now frequently appears on BBC Radio Five Live as a summariser at Premier League matches and also writes a column in The Sun newspaper.

Chris Waddle's name and occasionally photograph also appeared regularly on the Chanel 9 section of The Fast Show

In 2005 he was accused of attacking a man in a pub in Dore, Sheffield. He has one daughter, Brooke, and a son Jack.

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