Football
Imre Varadi is bringing the banana back to Manchester City
Manchester City cult-hero Imre Varadi revives the inflatable banana craze, bringing fun back to football with a new generation of fans.
Image Credits: Danny Brannigan/Hulton Archive
ONE of English football’s best-loved crazes is being revived by a Manchester City cult-hero.
Imre Varadi became a firm favourite with the club’s fans during a two-year spell at Maine Road, scoring 31 goals in 81 appearances after joining them from West Bromwich Albion in the mid-Eighties.
The striker’s exploits saw him christened ‘Imre Banana’ by City’s followers, who subsequently began taking inflatable versions of the fruit to games.
Still a popular accessory among many terrace-goers, Varadi hopes to introduce a new generation of supporters to a trend which saw him go down in Maine Road folklore.
It’s all about bringing the fun back into football.
Imre Varadi
“Yes, it’s a serious business. But it’s still a game - and entertainment - at the end of the day. Something for people to enjoy," Varadi told SportsBoom.com.
“I always have a smile on my face whenever I see someone waving one of those bananas around. The name has stuck with me all these years and so I thought I’d give it a go.
“I often see City fans carrying them still. Some of them might remember watching me play, others not.
“Either way, that doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of a laugh, which the world probably needs at the moment.”
Varadi, now aged 65, also represented the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Everton, Newcastle United and Leeds United during his career.
Following a brief spell in the United States and the non-league game, he became a licensed FIFA agent and has helped piece together some of the biggest deals in domestic sport.
“I was back at Elland Road last season and bumped into my old pal Chris Kamara there,” Varadi continued.
“He introduced me to all his mates and everyone else in the room as ‘Imre Banana’ so I can’t get away from it! That seems to be how everyone knows me.
“I’m fortunate that I’ve kept good relationships with all my old clubs so, although the bananas are obviously popular with City fans still, there’s no reason why anyone who loves football can’t get involved.”
Varadi joined City from West Brom in 1986 but was unable to save them from relegation.
But he did help City reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup a season later, before rejoining Wednesday and then winning a promotion at Elland Road.
Remembering the first time he spotted City fans brandishing an inflatable banana, Varadi said: “I remember coming out of the tunnel once and Paul Stewart, my old team mate, said ‘Have you seen that guy there, waving a banana?’
I’ve got to admit, it was a little bit confusing. Baffling even.
Imre Varadi
“Then the whole craze just mutated and during a game against West Brom, the City fans wanted me to come on and started waving them around. That’s when it stuck and I became known as ‘Imre Banana’.”
“It was good fun and I loved it,” Varadi added.
“English football has been going through a pretty dark time of it, with the Heysel Disaster and the Bradford Fire. So, after those terrible and tragic events, it was great to see something happen which showed football can be a laugh too. I think that was really important.
“Those bananas were even brought up on television programmes at the time and it’s great to see people waving them around now.”
Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.