The career of Jamie Vardy is one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of English football. The boy from Sheffield was still playing non-league football in 2012. Three years later, he was scoring for England at Euro 2016 as the Three Lions defeated Wales in Lens. It’s a rise that the country’s national sport has never seen before and we perhaps may never see again.
Since that goal in France, Vardy has gone from strength to strength. He has solidified himself as a Premier League legend. He has won the Premier League player of the season award, the Golden Boot award and has twice been named in the PFA Team of the Season. He has more English top-flight goals to his name than Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Nicolas Anelka. Not bad for a youngster that wasn’t good enough for lowly Sheffield Wednesday, right?
Humble beginnings
Jamie Vardy is a boyhood fan of Sheffield Wednesday. The Owls were a household name in English football throughout the 20th century, defeating Manchester United to lift the League Cup at Wembley in 1991. But since their relegation from the Premier League at the turn of the millennium, the South Yorkshire club has languished in the second and third tiers of English football. They currently ply their trade in League One, after losing to Sunderland in heartbreaking fashion in last season’s playoffs.
But he was released by his boyhood club back in 2003 at just 16. Most young players would have given up on their dream, and perhaps Vardy did. He joined Stocksbridge Park Steels – a team on the outskirts of Sheffield and way down the football pyramid – on a semi-professional contract while simultaneously working in a steelworks in the city. After scoring goals for fun, Northern Premier League side Halifax Town paid £15,000 for his services, and the goals continued.
26 goals in 37 appearances were to follow, as was promotion to the National League North. Vardy wouldn’t stick around though, securing a move to Fleetwood Town of the National League. And it was in the Lancashire coastal town that Vardy would truly grab the attention of scouts up and down the country. The future England international scored a further 31 goals in 36 games, again securing promotion to the football league for his side – the first time that the Cod Army had ever reached that level of the English footballing pyramid.
Leicester City and Vardy’s crowning moment
That incredible season for Fleetwood prompted Leicester City to make Vardy the first ever £1m non-league signing. A few eyebrows were raised at the transfer fee, especially when the goals dried up somewhat during his first season at the King Power Stadium. But during his second campaign they began to flow once again. Vardy would hit 16 goals in the Championship en route to securing promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since 2004.
Leicester’s first campaign in the top flight was, however, a disaster. The Foxes were bottom at Christmas and they were seven points shy of safety as late as April 3rd. But seven wins from the club’s final nine games secured their safety and one of the greatest escapes in Premier League history.
The following season, the unthinkable happened. Leicester City – 5,000/1 outsiders at the start of the season – would complete perhaps the greatest shock in football history as they romped to the Premier League title. It was Vardy’s crowning moment, and he bagged 24 goals en route to the title, including breaking the record for the most consecutive Premier League matches with a goal, scoring in 11 games in a row. He would also win the Player of the Year award that season and it’s a feat that we may never see again.
The years since
Since that incredible season, the goals have continued to fly in. Vardy has added a further 104 Premier League goals in the six years since that triumph, taking his Premier League total to 153. He has also helped the Foxes to qualify for European football twice, an incredible achievement considering the stature of the club.
Now aged 35, it’s unsurprising that Vardy has started to slow down somewhat. He hasn’t scored yet during the new season despite featuring on six occasions. Brendan Rodgers’ side are sitting rock bottom of the league and look to be in a fight for survival. Despite that, the former Fleetwood man had Manchester United interested in his services in the summer. He would instead sign a new contract with his current club, and it remains to be seen whether he can rekindle his form of old.