Imre Varadi

Imre Varadi (born 8 July 1959) is an English former professional footballer of Hungarian origin, known as a journeyman forward who appeared for 16 different clubs at all levels of professional football in England.

Born in Paddington, Varadi started out in non-league football with Letchworth before joining Sheffield United in 1978, shortly before his nineteenth birthday.

Varadi went on to become a nomadic journeyman, who rarely spent more than two years with any club and never made 100 league appearances in the colours of any team he played for.

From Sheffield United, he moved on to Everton, Newcastle United, Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich Albion, Manchester City, Swansea Town, Sheffield Wednesday again, Leeds United, Luton Town, Oxford United, Rotherham United, Mansfield Town, Boston United, Scunthorpe United and finally had a spell as player-manager at Matlock Town.

He was part of the Leeds United side that won the old First Division in 1992 but only played in three matches which was not enough games to earn a winner's medal. He was also part of the Sheffield Wednesday side that won promotion to the First Division in 1984, after 14 years away. He was sold to West Bromwich Albion a year later and was their top scorer with nine league goals in 1985-86, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated in bottom place with just 4 wins in the league. He was then sold to Manchester City, and was unable to prevent their relegation the following season, although he did help them reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in his second campaign there. He was nicknamed "Imre Banana" by the City fans, following the inflatable banana craze which the club's fans helped start that season.

In 1984 he was approached by the Hungarian FA as to his willingness to play for Hungary, but he turned them down, pointing out that they already had good strikers and attacking midfielders.

He became a fully licensed FIFA Agent in March 2004 and provides commentary on games for both PA Sport and BBC Radio Sheffield.