Nicknamed "Magic Chris", football journalist Luke Ginnell wrote that Waddle was "widely acknowledged as one of the finest attacking midfielders in Europe".

[3] 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.

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.

[5] While working in food processing (a seasoning factory), Waddle had unsuccessful trials with Sunderland[6] and Coventry City.

[8] 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).

[9] 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.

[11] 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.

Waddle returned to England in July 1992 in a £1 million move to Sheffield Wednesday, then managed by Trevor Francis.

[13] 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.

Following his departure from Torquay United, Waddle enjoyed two seasons with non-League Worksop Town making 60 appearances and scoring 3 goals.

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 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.

[20] 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.

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 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.

[22] He subsequently blamed a chance meeting with Uri Geller and Michael Jackson prior to the tournament for missing his penalty.

[28] 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.

Waddle appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live as a summariser at Premier League matches and also writes a column in The Sun newspaper.

[citation needed] Waddle was a key part of the pool of popular culture references used in the BBC comedy The Fast Show.