Born in Hepworth, near Gateshead, Waddle began his career as a part-timer at non-league Tow Law Town after being rejected at trials for Sunderland, Coventry and Newcastle. From working in a sausage factory he was taken up by Newcastle United in July 1980 for £1000. He did well at the club, scoring 46 goals in 169 appearances, and was picked for the England Under-21s but a desire for greater success took him to Tottenham Hotspur in July 1985 for just under £600,000.
Waddle played 173 games for Spurs and scored 42 goals as well as becoming a regular for the national side. In 1989 Olympic Marseilles paid £4.5 million for him, the third highest fee ever up to then, and in France Waddle truly flourished. In a team of stars he was one of the top players, during his time there the club were French champions three times (1990, 1991 and 1992).
Waddle returned to England in July 1992 in a £1.25 million move to Sheffield Wednesday, then managed by Trevor Francis. The club reached both domestic cup finals in the 1992-93 season and Waddle was voted PFA player of the year despite suffering a number of injuries. his legacy of injuries led to him being released by Wednesday in 1996 after just over 100 games and he was later picked up by Bradford in 1996 and then by Sunderland towards the end of that season. Following the relegation of Sunderland Waddle was player-manager of Burnley for the 1997-98 season but resigned (or was sacked) after the club only escaped relegation on the last day of the season.
He then joined the coaching staff at Wednesday and expanded his media work before deciding to start playing again. He joined non-league Worksop Town for the 2000-01 season and then on to Glapwell in August 2002.