Кристофер Роланд Уоддл: Футбол өмірі мен мансабы

the American Paralympian
English footballer (born 1960)

Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He had a spell as Burnley manager during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since. Largely since retiring he has worked in the media for BBC Radio 5 Live as part of their Premier League and Champions League team. He currently works as a commentator. Nicknamed "Magic Chris", football journalist Luke Ginnell wrote that Waddle was "widely acknowledged as one of the finest attacking midfielders in Europe". During his professional career, which lasted from 1978 to 1998, he played for several clubs, including Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympique de Marseille and Sheffield Wednesday. In 1989, his transfer from Tottenham to Marseille for £4.5 million made him the third most valuable player in the world, and he won three successive Ligue 1 titles with the club and played in the 1991 European Cup Final. While playing for Wednesday in the Premier League he was voted FWA Footballer of the Year for his performances in the 1992 93 season. He also played in the Premier League for Sunderland, in the Scottish Premiership with Falkirk and in the Football League for Bradford City, Burnley and Torquay United. He finished his career in non League football with Worksop Town, Glapwell and Stocksbridge Park Steels, later whilst in his fifties, he continued to play at semi professional level for Northern Counties East League side Hallam. Waddle earned 62 caps for England between 1985 and 1991, which included being a member of the teams which reached the quarter finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup and the semi finals of the 1990 World Cup. He also played for England at UEFA Euro 1988.

Waddle began his footballing career with Pelaw Juniors, moving on to Whitehouse SC, Mount Pleasant SC, HMH Printing, Pelaw SC, Leam Lane SC and Clarke Chapman before joining Tow Law Town before the start of the 1978–79 season.

While working in food processing (a seasoning factory), Waddle had unsuccessful trials with Sunderland and Coventry City. He joined Newcastle United as a 19 year old in July 1980 for £1,000.

After 46 goals in 170 league games for Newcastle, Waddle joined Tottenham Hotspur on 1 July 1985 for a fee of £590,000 (decided by a transfer tribunal). He scored twice on his league debut, a 4–0 home win over Watford on the opening day of the league season, although Spurs had a disappointing season where they finished tenth a year after finishing third, resulting in the dismissal of Peter Shreeves as manager and the appointment of David Pleat from Luton Town as his successor. He won an FA Cup runners up medal 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.

On 1 July 1989, after scoring 33 times in 138 league appearances for Tottenham, Waddle moved to French club Olympique de Marseille for a fee of £4.5 million; the third highest sum ever paid for a footballer at the time. During his time in France the club were French champions three times (1990, 1991 and 1992). They were also on the losing side to Red Star Belgrade in the 1991 European Cup Final. In 1991–92, he also played alongside fellow England midfielder Trevor Steven, who spent a year in France after signing from Rangers, only to return to Scotland after a single season there. During his years at Marseille, the fans gave him the nickname "Magic Chris". Around this time, Celtic, Leeds United and Sunderland were also interested in signing Waddle, but none of these transfers ever happened. Burnley also expressed an interest in appointing him as their player manager – a role he would finally take the following year – but Waddle saw out the season at Hillsborough. Waddle's later career at Hillsborough was marred by injuries and he was released 5 games into the 1996–97 season (when the Owls were top of the premiership and having taken young sensation Ritchie Humphreys – 4 goals in 5 games – under his wing) after being frozen out of the team by David Pleat, having played 109 games and scored 10 goals with many more assists.

Waddle joined Falkirk, in the Scottish First Division, in September 1996, but returned south of the border to play for Division One strugglers Bradford City the following month. Although short, his time at City was a success and he was a firm fans favourite. In a match away to Huddersfield Town he scored direct from a corner in a 3–3 draw live on TV. He also scored a goal in a 3 2 FA Cup win against Everton at Goodison Park which came second in the February 1997 Match of the Day Goal of the Month. His efforts with Bradford contributed to their survival in Division One, although he did not complete the season there.

Waddle moved to Sunderland, the side he had supported as a boy, for a nominal fee of £75,000 in March 1997, but could not help Sunderland from being relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season, despite scoring once against Everton and providing the assist for all other Sunderland goals scored in that period.

In May 1997 Waddle was appointed player manager of Burnley, moving from Roker Park on a free transfer. Burnley had a disappointing season, only just avoiding relegation at the end of the season. He scored once during his spell at Burnley, the goal coming in a 2–2 draw with AFC Bournemouth in October 1997.

Waddle left Burnley in the summer, and in September 1998 joined Torquay United. He played just 7 times for Torquay, before returning to Sheffield Wednesday as a coach. He was appointed reserve team coach in July 1999, and played for a local pub side, but left in June 2000 on the appointment of Paul Jewell as manager, just after the club (now blighted by financial problems) suffered relegation from the Premier League.

Following his departure from Torquay United, Waddle enjoyed two seasons with non League Worksop Town making 60 appearances and scoring 3 goals. His most notable appearance was in a 12–0 Northern Premier League record win against Frickley Athletic. He also had a brief spell with Glapwell and one appearance for Stocksbridge Park Steels in the Northern Premier League First Division, continuing his playing career at non League level into his early forties. Waddle later played regularly for Brunsmeer Athletic in the Meadowhall Sheffield & District Sunday Football League.

Having played at amateur level in the Sheffield Wragg Over 40s league for Hallam during 2012–13 season he came out of retirement after 11 years on the sidelines and signed for Sheffield based non League side Hallam in the Counties East League (tier 10 of the pyramid) on 22 July 2013. He made his debut against Chesterfield in a pre season friendly, coming on as a substitute at half time. The game ended in a 6–2 defeat for Hallam FC. Waddle signed a one year deal on 1 August 2013, committing to Hallam for the 2013–14 season promotion push while remaining part of the ESPN commentary team. He later rejoined in 2023.

Despite being in his 25th year, he was called up for the England Under 21 side and made his full squad debut against Ireland in March 1985. He says he only took the fifth penalty because Paul Gascoigne, who had been suspended from playing in the next game if England progressed, was too upset to take it. He subsequently blamed a chance meeting with Uri Geller and Michael Jackson prior to the tournament for missing his penalty. Waddle's performances in the 1990 World Cup were described as "superb" by Rob Bagchi, writing for The Guardian in 2010. He won the last of his 62 England caps on 16 October 1991 in a 1–0 win over Turkey, more than six years after making his international debut, and having rarely missed an England game since then. He had scored six goals for England, the last against Scotland on 27 May 1989. Waddle had fallen out of favour under coach Graham Taylor, but after a poor run of results for the national team, when Terry Venables became the new England manager at the beginning of 1994, he was keen to include Waddle in the squad for his first game against Denmark. However, Waddle was injured at the time and unavailable for selection. Whilst at Marseille he joined teammate Basile Boli in recording a song entitled We've Got a Feeling. Despite spending the 1997–98 season as a manager, Waddle never returned to the coaching side of the game following his retirement and became a TV football pundit, commentator and sports newspaper writer. He previously worked for Setanta Sports and ESPN, he currently works as an analyst for BBC Radio Five Live's Premier League football coverage. Waddle appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live as a summariser at Premier League matches and also writes a column in The Sun newspaper. Waddle signed a deal with Setanta Sports to commentate on all England away matches in 2008–09. Waddle then went on to co commentate for ESPN's English Premier League football coverage and is a pundit on Showsports Arabia, covering the English Premier League, from the studio in Dubai, UAE. In 2003, Thierry Henry named Waddle in his all time Dream Team Line up. Following England's heavy defeat to Germany in the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Waddle criticised the English Football Association, claiming: "The FA sit on their backsides and do nothing tournament after tournament after tournament. Why don't they listen? Why don't they look at other countries and ask 'how do they keep producing talent?' We coach talent out of players We lack so many ideas and it is so frustrating. The amount of money in our league is frightening and all we do is waste it on rubbish ideas We kid ourselves thinking we have a chance if we keep the tempo up. We can only play one way and it is poor. You can't go on playing football and hoping to win trophies playing a hundred miles an hour and putting teams under pressure for 90 minutes. You've got to be able to play slow, slow, quick and we can't do it." In 2019 Waddle featured in the first season of ITV show Harry's Heroes, which featured former football manager Harry Redknapp attempting get a squad of former England international footballers back fit and healthy for a game against Germany legends.

Waddle has one daughter, Brooke, a son called Jack. On 29 April 2012, Jack was given a one year first team contract at Chesterfield. His cousin, Alan Waddle, played league football for Halifax Town, Liverpool, Leicester City, Swansea City, Newport County, Mansfield Town, Hartlepool United and Peterborough United. In 2005, he was arrested following claims he was involved in a brawl in a pub in Dore, Sheffield. No charges were brought due to lack of evidence.

Waddle was a key part of the pool of popular culture references used in the BBC comedy The Fast Show. References to, and photographs of, Waddle made regular appearances during the "Chanel 9" news segment of the show.