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Christopher Ronald Waddle (born December 14, 1960)
was a famous England|English Football (soccer)
|footballer of the 1980's and 1990's.

Born in Hepworth, near Gateshead, Waddle began his
career as a midfielder at non-league Tow Law Town
after being rejected at trials for Sunderland
A.F.C.|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.

The desire for greater success took him to
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.|Tottenham Hotspur in July
1985 for just under £600,000. Waddle played 173
games for Spurs and scored 42 goals as well as
becoming a regular for England national football
team|England - he was in the squad which reached
the quarter finals of the Wc|1986 in Mexico.

Waddle had arguably football's most famous
fashion-victim haircut by this time - the mullet
(haircut)|mullet. He cut this off after the World
Cup though, and enjoyed his most productive
season. The two are not necessarily connected. 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 1988 European Football
Championship|European Championships.

In 1989 Olympique de Marseille|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 Kicks from the
penalty mark|penalty in a shoot-out at the end of
the Wc|1990 semi-final against West Germany
national football team|West Germany, ballooning
the ball over the bar. He'd regrown the mullet
before the tournament, but then had it cut off
prior to the semi. Again, the incidents are not
necessarily connected.

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 F.C.|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.

He was released by Wednesday in 1996 after more
than 100 games and he played briefly for Scottish
side Falkirk F.C.|Falkirk before being signed by
Bradford City. He then joined Sunderland and then
became player-manager of Burnley F.C.|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 FA Premier League|Premier League
matches.

In 2005 he was accused of attacking a man in a Pub
in Dore, Sheffield. He has one daughter, Brooke
Waddle|Brooke.

==Career==
*Newcastle Utd: 1980-1985, 170 appearances, 46
goals
*Tottenham Hotspur: 1985-1989, 138 appearances, 33
goals
*Marseilles: 1989-1992
*Sheffield Wednesday: 1992-1996, 109 appearances,
10 goals
*Falkirk: 1996,  4 appearances, 1 goal
*Bradford City: 1996-1997, 25 appearances, 6 goals
*Sunderland 1997, 7 appearances, 1 goal
*Burnley: 1997-1998
*Torquay United 1998

start box
succession box|title=FWA Footballer of the
Year|Football Writers' Association Footballer of
the Year|before=Gary Lineker |after=Alan
Shearer|years=1993
end box