Chris Waddle - Marseille's English Magician
English footballers rarely ever leave their country and there are some valid reasons for that: the quality of English football and how often they struggle to adapt to other countries and cultures. If you are playing for the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, or Manchester United while being English, there isn't much of an upside to going abroad because there are several things that can go wrong.
Marseille's stadium Stade Velodrome was Chris Waddle's home arena
While Waddle only stayed in France for three years, his time at Marseille is widely regarded as the best in his career and also helped to cement his place as one of the finest footballers that the French league had on its roster.
The context
Chris Waddle had been a very prominent winger in the 80s and his stints with Newcastle and Tottenham were great examples of that. He had proven himself as a winger with a notorious skill set, decent pace, and was also able to score a decent amount of goals per season, which is why a lot of people felt he needed to make one final step in his career to make it big. And that he did.Considering that Waddle was bound to be picked by England head coach Sir Bobby Robson for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, his 1989 summer was very special because he had to choose a team to play for. It would have been the safe choice to pick an English team since he obviously had a ton of experience in the First Division, but Waddle took a risk and went to France at the age of 29.
When it comes to Marseille, the French giants were going through a massive rebuild. Bernard Tapie, a controversial businessman, had become the club's president in 1986 and had begun a spending spree to build a side that could win the European Cup, nowadays known as the UEFA Champions League.
It's fair to say that Marseille were a bit like Paris Saint Germain in this day and age, spending a lot of money to get players that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. The French club paid a total of 4.5 million pounds for Waddle to Tottenham in the summer of 1989, making him the third most expensive player in world football at the time. It's fair to say there were some high expectations for the former Newcastle man in Marseille.
Waddle was joining a side that was filled with amazing players, such as Jean-Pierre Papin (who let Chris stay in his house while the latter was adapting to the country), Enzo Francescoli, Didier Deschamps, Éric Cantona, and Jean Tigana. And Waddle was adding much-needed pace and skill to this already supremely talented side.
Contributions and legacy
Waddle won the league during the three seasons he spent with Marseille and, despite his promise and the hype surrounding his signing, he didn't have a good start. By his own admission, he wasn't fit enough during his early months in the club and the footage of his early performances, especially his official debut against Lyon in the league, proves that the man hasn't been lying about it.However, after scoring a pivotal goal against Paris Saint Germain, Waddle never looked back and quickly became a fan-favorite to the Marseille faithful. This was mostly due to his fast-paced playing style, his skill set, and how he added some of that English football verticality to this star-studded team. He was later nicknamed "Magic Chris" by Marseille supporters, which was one of the many things he was grateful for during his time there.
It's also worth pointing out that Marseille's ambition was the European Cup. Ligue 1 had long been conquered and the team was now aiming to win Europe's top competition at club level. However, while Waddle was still a key performer for the club's success, his performances in the 1990 World Cup with England would end up having a side effect on his team in the European Cup.
See, England had, on paper, a very good World Cup. People didn't have a lot of faith in them before the competition but they managed to reach the semifinals, only losing to Germany on penalties after an exhilarating game. Waddle was a starter during most of the tournament but would end up missing his own penalty against Germany, which resulted in him deciding to not take a penalty against Red Star Belgrade in the 1991 European Cup final with Marseille.
The French club eventually lost that final, much to the frustration of the entire institution and Waddle's bad luck with penalty shootouts would continue. He would remain in France for another season, winning another league title, but Tapie wanted to keep changing the squad and add more quality, which led to Waddle, now 32 years old, signing for Sheffield Wednesday in the summer of 1992 and going back to England.
While "Magic Chris" was never able to win Marseille the European Cup, something they would achieve the season after he left (albeit with some match-fixing controversies), he is quite beloved at the Velodrome Stadium. His playing style made him quite endearing to the fans and he was even voted the second best player in the club's history in 1998, with only Jean-Pierre Papin finishing above him.
It is a testament to the player's achievements and how much that brave step of going abroad meant for his career.
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