Born on this day is a top quality winger who came to his boyhood club Sunderland in the twilight of his career, Chris Waddle.
Heworth-born Waddle played for several North East-based clubs like Pelaw Juniors and Tow Law Town FC before signing for Newcastle as a teenager, while he was still working for Cheviot Seasoning ( a sausage and pie makers).
Waddle became a hero at St James’ (despite being a Sunderland fan as a child) scoring 52 times and creating countless other goals in almost 200 appearances. At 6 foot tall he wasn’t your fashionable winger, but his quality on the ball and crossing ability was second-to-none.
Impressive performances for the Mags (and an England cap) earned the winger a move to Tottenham, costing just shy of £1 million. He played for four impressive years at White Hart Lane, before Spurs cashed in for massive profit. Waddle moved to Marseille for £4.5 million, making him the third-most expensive player in the world at the time.
Waddle won the league three times in a row in France, as well as getting to the 1991 European Cup final. That was lost to Red Star Belgrade, with Waddle famously not taking a penalty after missing one in England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Germany. Six years after leaving France Chris would be voted runner-up in Marseille’s vote for ‘Player of the Century’.
Upon his return to England, Waddle played for Sheffield Wednesday, Falkirk (for a month to rebuild fitness) and Bradford before a return to Roker Park at 36 years old, where he grew up as a supporter in the Fulwell End. He played just seven times, but scored a sublime free kick in Roker Park’s final ever league game. It was in front of that famous Fulwell End. Despite a 3-0 win that day, Chris’ efforts weren’t enough to keep us up. We would say goodbye to Roker Park with a relegation - somewhat ironic, but that free kick against Everton brought a fitting send-off to our old stadium.
