Where are they now: Imre Varadi
For someone who was nothing other than a ball of energy in his playing days, the frenetic world of the transfer window is just taylor-made for Imre Varadi.
The one-time Whites striker's 'second' footballing career is equally as cut and thrust as his first, when the London-born forward endeared himself to a host of clubs up 'north' from Leeds to Everton and Newcastle to Sheffield Wednesday with his sheer graft and appetite for the game.
A players' agent since 2000, the mobile phone line of Sheffield-based Varadi, now 49, will be white-hot for the next four weeks during the scrum that is the January transfer window, while his car will also be clocking the miles on the UK motorway network.
The carbon 'footprint' of Varadi – whose father was Hungarian and his mother Italian – will also extend to Europe as he attempts to broker deals for clients across the continent before the window closes for business on January 31. So don't expect him to come up for air this month.
On his agency work, Varadi – who played at Elland Road under footballing mentor Howard Wilkinson from February 1990 to March 1993 – said: "I absolutely love it, on a day to day basis. Obviously the transfer window is now open and I'm talking to managers every day, players and coaches and am totally involved in football seven days a week, which is fantastic.
"I work for a company called Stellar Group Ltd, based in London and I travel all over Europe now and we've got a lot of famous clients – I don't really want to say who they are, but they are Premiership players, put it that way!
"I'm always up at Leeds, I've got players I look after there and I deal with the club regarding contracts and what not.
"We've got players at every football club in the UK, so you can imagine how busy it is at this time of year!"
Varadi's ports of call in his playing career were frequent, with his odyssey encompassing 13 professional clubs, after starting out his footballing life in the backwaters of Letchworth Garden City.
Varadi – whose first stopping off point was Bramall Lane – gave distinguished service to all and while his stint with the Whites was brief in terms of games played, it was memorable nevertheless.
And Elland Road was very much a home from home for Varadi, with former Sheffield Wednesday team-mates Mel Sterland, Carl Shutt, Lee Chapman, John Pearson and Glynn Snodin part of a sizeable Owls 'mafia' in West Yorkshire when he arrived – with his former Hillsborough chief Howard Wilkinson piloting operations.
Injuries to Bobby Davison and Shutt prompted Wilkinson to sign Varadi for a third time in the winter of 1990, with Leeds pitted in an intense battle for automatic promotion with Newcastle and Sheffield United, two of Varadi's former clubs.
Varadi helped keep the wheels of the promotion bandwagon fully intact with some valuable cameos, doing enough to earn himself a Championship medal in the process.
In total, the much-travelled frontman – then into his 30s – featured just 29 times in three seasons at Elland Road, but fully enjoyed the gloss applied to his career at United, the last 'major' club he represented before drifting into the lower and non-leagues.
For his part, Varadi was just glad that Wilkinson came calling again to bring him the short hop up the M1, with his old boss having left Sheffield Wednesday for Leeds shortly after re-signing him in the autumn of 1988.
On heading to Leeds, at the age of 30, Varadi said: "It was a bit of a surprise. When I went from Manchester City to Sheffield Wednesday for the second time, Howard brought me back and I'd heard all the rumours about him going to Leeds and he said "I'm not going to Leeds, no way!" and that they are just rumours.
"Within seven days of signing, Howard had gone to Leeds! But luckily I ended up joining him there and he hadn't forgotten about me.
"Howard was always a mentor to me and I still speak to him a lot and he's a great guy. I don't think he's been given the credit by the pundits that he deserved during his career and especially at Leeds where he won two championships and was the last Englishman to win the first division.
"Some see him as dour, but not among all the ex-Leeds players and many others.
"Deep down, he's a really funny guy – maybe to media folk, he's just not a great personally on camera. But behind all that, he's a terrific guy who is good company, really bright and a great coach and man-manager.
"He created a fantastic dressing room at Leeds. We worked hard and certainly played hard and there was a fantastic team spirit.
"We had some truly great players such as Gordon Strachan and there was a real togetherness and some real characters like Eric Cantona and Vinnie (Jones).
"Howard did sell Vinnie after we went up, which was a bit of a surprise. But he got what he wanted from Vinnie and having got promotion, went for the likes of Gary McAllister who had that little bit of quality.
"I still keep in touch with all the old Leeds lads and many were there at Mel Sterland's book launch dinner about six weeks ago. Chris Fairclough and Chris Whyte were there, along with Jon Newsome and Mickey Thomas came along and we all see each other on the circuit.
"My time at Leeds was fantastic, to be honest. It was a great time at the club and I've some fond memories. I won a second division championship medal.
"I'm big mates with Mel and we used to travel up every day to Leeds together and had lots of fun with a talented squad.
"There were some good young players such as Batty and Speed and in the year we went up, we had the likes of Bobby Davison, Lee Chapman and Mel.
"I joined in the February of the promotion year in the old second division and things just snowballed. Unfortunately, I did pick up a few injuries and I was also going through a divorce, but still when I look back now, we had some great times.
"I remember playing five or six games when Gordon Strachan got injured and despite not playing that much, I was always in the squad and travelled up and down the country and there were always thousands of Leeds fans following us. We were winning week-in, week-out and you couldn't do anything but really enjoy it.
"There were lots of memorable times. Obviously, there was the Bournemouth game when we clinched promotion.
"There was lots of trouble down there which was a shame. But there were nearly all highs during my time at Leeds.
"After Leeds, I had a few good years at Rotherham and then went into the non-league and was player-manager at Matlock Town and assistant to Mel at Stalybridge before starting my 'second' footballing career."
He added: "I just hope Leeds can get back to where they belong. I was actually with Simon (Grayson) when he was at Leeds and he was a good, steady, honest player. I don't recall him playing a lot of games, but remember the day he went to Leicester and he made a good career for himself, both playing-wise and after.
"I hope he does well. I know Leeds want to strengthen their defence and Gary McAllister wanted to do that when this window opened, but unfortunately didn't get there."
Loved by supporters wherever he went, Varadi's ultimate claim to fame perhaps lies in creating a terrace 'monster', namely the inflatable craze in the late 1980s – helping to put the fun back into the game when hooliganism and Heysel were still deep scars on the soccer landscape.
So while he may not go down in the annals of footballing greats – the name of Imre Varadi will forever be etched into footballing folklore.
Varadi said: "I remember running out at Manchester City and someone threw a banana and just called me 'Imre Banana! It didn't even rhyme with my name and had nothing to do what was down my trousers!
"The inflatable craze just swept the country and there was a banana craze. After that, it was hammers for West Ham fans and canaries for Norwich fans.
"I actually went onto the 'I Love the 70s, 80s and 90s' programme aired on BBC2 (last year) about the banana craze and I still see the odd one at grounds. It's nice to be remembered!"
YEPHele Where are they now-serien:
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/custompages/CustomPage.aspx?pageID=76468http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Varadihttp://www.leedsfans.org.uk/leeds/players/453.htmlhttp://www.football-england.com/imre_varadi.htmlhttp://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=8115http://www.stellargroup.co.uk/http://www.stellargroup.co.uk/personnel.html?cid=2
