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Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. 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 in Europe". During his professional career, which lasted from 1978 to 1998, he played for several clubs, most notably 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 had a spell as manager, with Burnley during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since.
He made his Second Division debut for them in a 1–0 home win over Shrewsbury Town on 22 October 1980 and quickly established himself as an effective attacking midfielder, playing alongside Kevin Keegan and Peter Beardsley as Newcastle won promotion to the First Division at the end of 1983–84 season.
In one of his first games in the top flight, against Queen's Park Rangers at Loftus Road on 22 September 1984, Waddle scored a first half hat-trick for Newcastle, who had a 4–0 lead at half time. However, a fight back by QPR saw the game end 5–5. "Chris Waddle". Daily Mirror.
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 EFL Cup.
During his years at Marseille, the fans gave him the nickname "Magic Chris". He was known as the successor to former Marseille player Roger Magnusson. Waddle was also voted second best OM player of the century behind Jean Pierre Papin for the club's century anniversary in 1998. Waddle and Marseille reached the 1991 European Cup Final. Although he did not take a penalty, Waddle ended up on the losing side in a penalty shoot-out once again, after the game had ended 0–0 in normal time.
He helped Wednesday reach the semi-finals of the League Cup in the 1993–94 season, but this latest attempt at winning silverware was foiled by Manchester United, and the next two seasons brought bottom-half finishes in the league for Wednesday. Waddle's past also came back to haunt him in Wednesday's exit from the 1994–95 FA Cup, when a tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers was decided on a penalty shoot out, Waddle again missing an attempt. Francis was axed in 1995 and Waddle's former Tottenham manager David Pleat took over.
In January 1996, Kevin Keegan attempted to re-sign Waddle for Newcastle United as cover for David Ginola during a suspension, but Keegan's £500,000 bid to re-sign the player who had played alongside him in the Newcastle team more than a decade earlier was rejected and Keegan was unwilling to meet manager David Pleat's £1million asking price for the 35-year-old. "Owls block Waddle move". Daily Mirror (The Free Library). 23 January 1996. Around this time, Celtic, Leeds United and Sunderland were also interested in signing Waddle, but none of these transfers ever happened. "Yanks tempt Waddle". Daily Mirror (The Free Library). 9 January 1996. 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. "Burnley eyes on Waddle". The People (The Free Library). 18 February 1996.
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.
On 26 March 1985, when still a Newcastle player, Waddle was capped at senior level by Bobby Robson's England for the first time in a 2–1 win over Republic of Ireland. He soon became a regular member of the England squad and on 16 October that year he scored his first England goal, on his tenth international appearance, in a 5–0 win over Turkey.
Waddle was in England's squad at the 1986 and 1990 FIFA World Cup as well as UEFA Euro 1988. Although England were eliminated at the group stages of Euro 88 after losing all three games, they did reach the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup and the semi-finals in 1990. Waddle had an eventful match in the semi-final against West Germany, which ended in defeat on a penalty shootout. Waddle hit the post with a shot in extra time, which could have been the winning goal, but then missed the decisive penalty in the shootout defeat as he put it inches over the bar. 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. "Rewind radio: Euro 2012; In Our Time". The Guardian. 17 June 2012. 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 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.
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.
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.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | |||
| Newcastle United | 1980–81 | Second Division | 3 |
| 1981–82 | Second Division | 8 | |
| 1982–83 | Second Division | 7 | |
| 1983–84 | Second Division | 18 | |
| 1984–85 | First Division | 16 | |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 1985–86 | First Division | 14 |
| 1986–87 | First Division | 11 | |
| 1987–88 | First Division | 3 | |
| 1988–89 | First Division | 14 | |
| Marseille | 1989–90 | Division 1 | 12 |
| 1990–91 | Division 1 | 8 | |
| 1991–92 | Division 1 | 8 | |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 1992–93 | Premier League | 4 |
| 1993–94 | Premier League | 3 | |
| 1994–95 | Premier League | 5 | |
| 1995–96 | Premier League | 3 | |
| Falkirk | 1996–97 | Division One | 1 |
| Bradford City | 1996–97 | First Division | 6 |
| Sunderland | 1996–97 | Premier League | 1 |
| Burnley | 1997–98 | Second Division | 2 |
| Torquay United | 1998–99 | Third Division | 0 |
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year | |
| England | 1 |
| 2 | |
| 1 | |
| 0 | |
| 2 | |
| 0 | |
| 0 | |
Marseille
Sheffield Wednesday
Individual
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