Luke Varney: Former Crewe, Charlton and Blackpool striker retires aged 39

Luke Varney's journey in league football started at Crewe as a 20-year-old in March 2003 and ended at Burton in January 2021

The vital statistics of Luke Varney's two decades in professional football add up to some pretty decent reading.

In his 513-game career he scored 104 goals, made 19 moves, played for 11 clubs, had one £2m price tag, one stand named after him - and, at every club he was at, there was always one 1970s comic TV actor he was named after - 'Reg' Varney.

"Hearing those numbers read out makes me feel really proud," Varney told BBC Radio Derby. "And something to reflect on now I've finally finished."

For football romantics, Leicestershire-born Varney also bookended his career nicely, with his local non-league club Quorn FC .

It was in the north Leicestershire village of Quorn - better known first and foremost for its local foxhunting, before more recently giving its name to a popular meat substitute - where it all began for Varney.

And it was back at Quorn where it all ended, at the age of 39.

Back playing in front of the stand that carries his name, paid for by the proceeds of the 20% sell-on fee Quorn's long-serving chairman Stuart Turner negotiated when Varney made his £2m move from Crewe Alexandra to Charlton Athletic in May 2007.

"I get some stick about the Varney Stand," he grins. "But I still go in it when I go to games - and my children sit in it."

The Luke Varney Stand at Quorn was chiefly funded by the £400,000 the Leicestershire non-league club banked from his £2m move from Crewe to Charlton in 2007

Yet for Varney, after all his 18 years at Crewe, Charlton, Derby County (twice), Sheffield Wednesday (three times), Blackpool, Portsmouth, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers (twice), Ipswich Town (three times), Burton Albion (twice) and Cheltenham Town, in hindsight, maybe going back to Quorn turned out to be one move too many.

"I wanted to carry on," he said. "As soon as I finished at Burton Albion, the chairman and manager were badgering me all summer to go back to Quorn, but they'll probably regret it now as I didn't do too great."

He has packed in with Quorn sitting 16th out of 18 in the United Counties League, the fifth tier of the non-league pyramid, having won just once in 13 games this season.

But there were still benefits to rejoining his first club.

"It was brilliant to go back and just be involved. The chairman has been involved in a few of my deals. And there's a lot of young players there. I'll still be involved at the club but not on the playing side.

"I just wasn't as committed as I'd like to have been. And it was definitely the right decision [to retire].

"Under the circumstances, maybe I've just dropped too low and I wasn't enjoying it.

"But it was still a bit of a lightbulb moment. We played Eastwood away in Nottingham. It was my daughter's birthday and I didn't see her all day as she was at school.

"We got beat, it wasn't a great night for anyone involved and I drove home that night just knowing it was the decision I was going to make and that I needed to get my life sorted off the park."

How Reg made his mark...

Among his many career highlights, scoring the winner to beat Liverpool at Anfield in 2010 was one of the best

Varney was never a prolific scorer, other than in one dream year as a League One player for Crewe when he hit 25 goals in 2006-07, which at the end of that season made him one of the Alex boss Dario Gradi's many seven-figure sales from that era.

The only other time he hit double figures in a single campaign was 14 for Cheltenham in League Two in 2018-19.

He jokes: "Maybe I've dragged as much as I can out of my career, with such limited ability.

But there were so many individual moments to remember:

• His first league goal, sandwiched between two from Dean Ashton, in Crewe's 3-1 win at Crystal Palace in December 2003.

• Cancelling out an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer opener for Crewe in the League Cup against Manchester United in October 2006.

• His first hat-trick at Chesterfield, for Crewe, in the Football League Trophy in January 2007.

• Both goals for Charlton Athletic in 2-0 local derby win over Crystal Palace in February 2008.

• A winner for Blackpool against Roy Hodgson's Liverpool at Anfield in October 2010 (he also played in the return in January when Ian Holloway's Seasiders completed a double, in Kenny Dalglish's first game back in charge of the Reds).

• Two goals in six minutes for Leeds United to win a Yorkshire derby against Sheffield Wednesday in April 2013.

• A second-half equaliser for Burton Albion at Barnsley in April 2017 - a goal that kept the Brewers up by a point.

Plenty for Varney to reflect on as he embarks on a planned new career as a coach - in fitness, as much as football.

"I'm doing a personal trainer course," he said. "It's something I first looked into at the back end of my Burton days, when I did a bit with the lads.

"I'm hopefully going to do that on a personal level and I've converted my garage into a gym.

"The demand's out there. So many mums and dads want their sons and daughters to be footballers. I just hope I can get some of my wisdom across."

Luke Varney was talking to BBC Radio Derby sports editor Ed Dawes.