Man City bananas ‘brought fun back’, says Varadi

Former Manchester City striker Imre Varadi said it was “brilliant to see” the club’s fans waving inflatable bananas at Anfield on Sunday and feels it “brought a lot of fun back”.

Varadi was nicknamed ‘Imre Banana’ by City fans during his two-year spell with the club in the late 1980s and they began taking inflatable bananas to games when they played in the old Second Division.

The craze continued into the early 90s, with City fans taking bananas to games intermittently since, and dozens re-emerged at Sunday’s game.

City’s 3-0 win over Liverpool was the club’s first game since being found guilty of 114 charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

With the club facing sanctions such as a points deduction or expulsion from the Premier League, City fans took bananas to Anfield as a nod to their yo-yo years in the 1980s.

Varadi, who now sells inflatable bananas via the club and whose X account is @imre_banana, told BBC Radio 5 Live Drive: “It was amazing, [it’s] bringing a lot of fun back into the game.

“The game itself was a terrific game obviously but just to see the inflatable craze coming back from the 80s when I was playing at the old Maine Road, it was a joy.”

Varadi joined City from West Brom in October 1986 and scored 26 goals in 65 appearances before moving to Sheffield Wednesday in September 1988.

“Somebody started to call me Imre Banana and then, the following game, there were 10, 20, 25 bananas and then it just grew and grew and grew until every football club had an inflatable,” he added.

“I started it, but it was 40 years ago, and it’s still going strong now, as we all saw at Anfield. I’m really proud of it.

“It’s bringing a lot of joy to the game. It’s great to see.”