He arrived in the football elite at a fairly late age but that was not an impediment to becoming one of the best strikers from the last 5 years.
Born in Sheffield in 1987, from an early age showed his passion for football to the point of being part of the academy of Sheffield Wednesday, later on he was released at the age of 16, along with not wanting to leave the pitch, joined Stockbridge, an amateur team, where he spent 7 seasons as their reference striker.
He combined football with a job in a cell factory since his salary of 30 pounds a week was not enough. He took a leap in quality in 2010/2011 when he was signed for 15,000 pounds by, Halifax Town, who played in the Northern Conference. It took him very little time to make a difference, in a year Jamie Vardy lifted the league trophy and the top scorer trophy after nicking 25 goals in 37 appearances.
A year later he was signed by Fleetwood Town, from the Premier Conference. It only took one season for him to become the league’s top scorer and again lift the league title. After the match against Yeovil Town, the coach at the moment, Ian Halloway, was so impressed with Vardy that he made a liberal offer of £750,000 which would later be rejected by Fleetwood Town as they demanded a million pounds. The one-million-pound offer came in the summer of 2012 from Leicester City. The English striker arrived in the elite of football at his 25 years of age. His adaptation with the ‘foxes’ was not easy, on his first season que scored 4 goals in 26 games.
After suffering much criticism from the fans, he lost confidence and even considered quitting football and that was where the role of Nigel Pearson was key. The coach sustained to give continuity and I fully trust on the Sheffield player. In the following season, Jamie was a totally different player, ending up with 16 goals in the season, which took Leicester City back to the Premier League, after being 10 years away from it. On their return to the Premier League, the ‘foxes’ were the favourites to be relegated the following year despite the fact that Leicester had reinforced their lines with players such as Leonardo Ulloa and Andrej Kramaric.
They started the season well with a 2-2 draw against the ‘Toffees’ at home. Shortly after that would come the cruel streak of 11 games without a win that condemned the team. Leicester improved slightly but went back into a losing streak, 8 games without winning.
The ‘foxes’ woke up at the end of the season after beating West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion. They got a decent winning streak which allowed them to stop being bottoms of the league. On matchday 36 they defeated Southampton, signing 6 wins in 7 games and had already moved away from the red zone of the table. That year, Hull City, Burnley and QPR ended up descending, so the ‘foxes’ maintained the category. The great accomplishment attained was baptised as “the great escape”.
The season where Leicester would make history starts.
The campaign could not have started more agitated than with the dismissal of the coach, Nigel Paterson, his replacement, Claudio Ranieri. The other reinforcements that included the ‘foxes’ were those of Fuchs, Okazaki and N’Golo Kante who came from the French club, Caen.
First game and they already had a victory, 4-2 against Sunderland, one of the goals scored by Jamie Vardy. Parallel to the English striker was the young Algerian player, Riyad Mahrez, who started the season phenomenally with 4 goals in 4 games. The base of a fighting team with the goals of Vardy. The ‘foxes’ generally had a great winning dynamic but when they were below in the result, they armed themselves with courage and claw and thanks to the goals largely from Vardy they managed to turn the scoreboard and win the match.
On November 28, Jamie Vardy broke another record, this time he attacked the historic Dutch striker, Rudd van Nistelroy, who to date was the only player to score in 10 consecutive Premier League games, Vardy took the record one notch higher with a total of 11 consecutive games scoring a goal.
Matchday 17 and Leicester was already leaders of the Premier League. Little by little they became the league’s giant killer after beating important teams from the ‘Big Six’ such as Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City. On matchday 33, a brace by Jamie Vardy kept them first and mathematically classified for the next edition of the Champions League. This would be the first participation in the history of the club.
May 2, 2016, Leicester City were crowned Premier League champions for the first time in their history.
Jamie Vardy finished the season with 24 goals and 8 assists in the 36 league games he played. Tied on goals with Kun Agüero and a single goal behind Harry Kane that ended up winning the golden boot.
After the magnificent season, he was awarded the FWA Footballer of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Year and also included in the XI of the season along with some of his teammates: Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and Wes Morgan.
The team began to disassemble after such an achievement, all the big clubs had their eyes set on the Leicester City players. Numerous offers rained down during the summer of 2016 especially for Jamie Vardy. Arsenal themselves were about to pay the 26-year-old forward’s resignation clause, but he remained firm with his decision to stay at the club that made him succeed, Leicester City.
The first to leave the club was N’Golo Kante to Chelsea in exchange for £36 million. Years later the leave of Mahrez to Manchester City in exchange for £67 million thus ending the collection of players that led the ‘foxes’ to the top of English football. While all this was going on, Leicester aimed to stay as a mid / high table club, in the top 10 on a regular basis. Jamie Vardy kept on scoring goals which is what he does best. To date he has scored 85 goals in 157 games.
Winner of a Premier League golden boot in the 19/20 season after scoring 23 goals. Established as one of the best strikers of the last 5 years, not only nationally, in England, but also worldwide. He currently ranks as Leicester City’s 4th Top Scorer in history with 143 goals. They separate him 130 goals to match Arthur Chandler, who is the ‘foxes’ top scorer with 273 goals. Undoubtedly one of Jamie Vardy’s challenges is to keep climbing the table and get as close to this figure as possible.
He got a place in the national team thanks to his good performances; despite his good form he did not do very well with the ‘three lions’. At the EURO 2016 he scored a goal in three games and at the 2018 World Cup, celebrated in Russia, he could not manage to score a goal in the 4 games he played. At the end of the world event, he decided to put an end to his adventure with the national team and at the age of 31 as he affirmed that “it is a good time to make way for a younger squad”.
Despite the fact that he is currently 34 years old, Vardy continues to maintain a great physical state, especially the change of pace and the speed in the last third of the field that characterizes the English striker, remains intact. His intention to stay on the team that made him succeed prevails despite having received succulent offers in the past. The last one came from MLS, the American professional soccer league. LA Galaxy would be interested in taking over the services of the English attacker. Vardy’s response to this offer was done on the 26/8/2020 after signing a new contract until 2023 with the ‘foxes’ to seal his future to the English team. Vardy states that his intention is to “achieve much more with this team”.
“I love playing my football in front of our fans at King Power Stadium and I’m delighted to continue this journey at such an exciting time for the club.”
Finally, Vardy concluded by saying:
“We’ve a fantastic team that I believe is capable of getting even better and I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together in the next few years.”
Something that Vardy made clear to us is that his intention is to continue playing, to continue scoring goals and to continue expanding his legacy with the ‘foxes’.
