Sunderland Varga, a tall and commanding centre-back, was recruited by
Peter Reid for £875,000 from
Slovan Bratislava during the summer of 2000. Varga began his career at the
Stadium of Light with an impressive opening day display in Sunderland's 1–0 victory over
Arsenal, picking up the man of the match award. He scored his first Sunderland goal in a 2–0 win over West Ham in January 2001. He also contributed 7 goals in all competitions. Successive titles evaded Celtic in the
2004–05 season as they threw away the SPL title on the final day of the season, but they did manage to take consolation in the
Scottish Cup final, beating
Dundee United 1–0, with
Alan Thompson scoring the only goal of the game after 8 minutes from a free-kick. Throughout this season Varga proved to be a rock in the Celtic defence. He even got up-field to score six times, including one in Celtic's 3–1 defeat to
A.C. Milan in the
UEFA Champions League group stage. During this time he, like
Stilian Petrov before him, had his name abbreviated by the Celtic following, Stanislav would now simply be known as "Stan" Varga to the Hoops supporters and Scottish media. After the
2005–06 season, Varga agreed a new one-year contract at Parkhead. "Stan has signed his new deal at Celtic," his agent Tony McGill told
Sky Sports. "Stan is pleased to stay as he did not want to go anywhere else and he has signed a one-year deal."
Return to Sunderland On 31 August 2006, he returned to Sunderland under new manager
Roy Keane, a former colleague from Celtic, alongside Celtic's
Ross Wallace, for a combined fee of up to £1,100,000. He scored his first goal in his second spell at Sunderland in a 4–1 loss at Preston North End in October 2006. He was named in the
Championship Team of the Week for his performance in Burnley's 1–0 win over
Plymouth Argyle, his first league game for the club. Sunderland released Varga at the end of the 2007–08 season. ==International career==