Jamie Vardy believes Leicester’s miraculous Premier League title win could be repeated despite the richest clubs tightening their grip on modern football.
A decade after writing one of the game’s greatest tales, the Foxes will start next season in League One after consecutive relegations. Vardy himself is fighting against the same outcome – he was part of the Leicester team who dropped out of the top flight last term, and his current club Cremonese face being relegated from Italy’s Serie A.
Yet Vardy’s legacy is assured. After spending the first part of his career in non-league football, Vardy became a Premier League great, also winning the Golden Boot and the FA Cup, and playing in a World Cup semi-final.
His story has been turned into a Netflix documentary, which will be released later this month, and Vardy still has faith that underdogs can triumph.
Jamie Vardy ended his time at Leicester with exactly 200 goals in 500 games for the club
‘The main thing the title win did was give the so-called smaller teams the ambition to want to try to do it and gave them a belief it can happen,’ he said. ‘What you saw with Leicester is that it was the group of lads that were the right fit together.
‘So if you get the right group, the right players for the positions, the way you want to play and the right mentality I think anything can still happen.
‘It’s tougher, yeah, because the bigger teams are just “We’ll have him. £90m, there you go, we’ll have him.” It’s easier for them to get the players in. It’s just the clubs underneath that have to be a bit streetwise and savvy with their transfers.’
As for his own route to the top, Vardy acknowledges that it may be impossible to repeat.
He added: ‘It’s not the common way of doing things, is it? Nowadays, it’s academy and then reserves and then first-team. That’s normally always been the case. I think luckily I was just a little freak in the works.
‘I don’t think it will probably happen again, no, but it did happen for me and it was hard work. It really was tough but all worth it.’
‘Untold UK: Jamie Vardy’ available only on Netflix from May 12
