Jamie Vardy’s havin’ a party — a chant which echoed across sport when the Leicester talisman broke Van Nistelrooy’s goals record and sealed his chapter in the ultimate underdog story.
Now as the frontman surpasses 100 Premier League goals, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s been cutting through top-flight defences for decades. But in fact, at the age of 33, Vardy has only played six seasons of top-flight football.
Vardy has clawed tooth and nail across all divisions of English football, which makes the recent vindication of his talents all the sweeter.
The world found out what Vardy was all about in 2016, during his sophomore year in the Prem. Yet non-league supporters knew it was only a matter of time before he made it big.
His meteoric rise through grass routes football is without a doubt, the greatest success story in non-league history. And we can only hope this chapter is not an exception to the rule.
Read on to discover how non-league football nurtured Jamie Vardy into becoming the footballing icon he is today.
History tells us Vardy’s story is one of rags to riches
Many people were introduced to Jamie Vardy via a 90-yard bullet hit past a floundering Simon Migolet, as Leicester handed out a 3-1 demolition of Liverpool.
But as much as Liverpool fans like to dream, football doesn’t begin and end with the red wall of Anfield.
Vardy’s story instead begins in 2007, down in Northern Premier League One Division South. After a failed Sheffield Wednesday tryout, the striker was handed a lifeline by Stockbridge Park Steels.
Being the future star he’s proven to be, Vardy repaid his non-league saviours by hammering home 66 goals across three seasons, earning Stockbridge a promotion through the playoffs in the 2008-2009 season.
Continuing to create a rumble across the lower leagues, Vardy earned transfers to Halifax and Fleetwood Town — in 2010 and 2011 respectively — bringing his prolific goalscoring form along for the ride.
But it would be the following 2012 season which lined Vardy up with a date with destiny. It would be Nigel Pearson, then Leicester City manager, who noticed Jamie’s potential.
After swooping him up for a cool £1 million, Vardy had finally made it to the big time in the form of the Football League Championship. And the rest is history.
Just five years ago you’d be laughed out of every sporting conversation for seriously suggesting that a non-league star could rise from the lower leagues and win the Prem. No less, dominate as the focal point for a title-winning side.
But Vardy’s talent and Leicester’s risk paid off.
Premier League fairy tale with Leicester
After successful promotion to the Premier League in 2014, Leicester’s return to the topflight looked doomed. Until they accumulated a stunning run of wins to beat the drop in spectacular fashion.
Going into 2015-2016, the foxes didn’t have mere outside odds to top the table, they were nigh on favourites to face the drop this time around.
And when Nigel Pearson — the long time advocate of Vardy — got the chop, things seemed even bleaker. But who were we to know the fairy tale was only just beginning?
‘Tinker Man’ Claudio Ranieri was handed the reigns. And to the shock of the world, Leicester City defied the odds and won the Premier League. Batting away pretenders, Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester City by doubling their previous tally to the tune of 81 points.
The image of a smug Gary Lineker in tent-like boxers is scarred on my retinas forever. Although this wasn’t a new chapter in his story. Instead, this was Vardy’s retribution, after hitting home 24 goals to go with a nice, shiny winners medal.
Fans & sports betting sites can see he’s improving with age
While the Leicester captain hasn’t added another trophy to his resume post-2016, the old cliche rings true — we all get better with age. And in Vardy’s case, fans and sports betting sites alike agree that his star is still burning brightly.
This means you can see the evidence of his improvement and measure it with cold data.
For the fans, you need only observe his performances.
Watching Vardy on the pitch now, he is refined and mature. No longer running like a headless chicken to every half chance, he is an opportunist waiting patiently to pounce.
This something Pep Guardiola would agree with, after Vardy demolished Man City with less touches than a 85th minute substitute might be expected to reach.
But all the same, he evokes the raw passion which drove him up the leagues in his early career. As clearly seen after performing a kung fu kick against the goal post in pursuit of his 100th Prem goal.
After achieving the coveted century in July 2020, his eagerness has been calculated for the benefit of the squad. Leicester is once again fighting amongst the big six.
For the sports betting sites, you simply have to check his odds of being the EPL’s top scorer.
His 23 goals in 2019/20 was enough to win him the Premier League’s Golden Boot, ahead of the 22 scored by both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Danny Ings.
And the Golden Boot is certainly on the cards again.
The Telegraph (a national newspaper whose odds can be trusted) makes Vardy the joint-third favourite to finish as the league’s top scorer and you can find a detailed breakdown here of its assessments. In short, Vardy, Harry Kane, and Son Heung-min are given odds of 8/1 by The Telegraph, behind Mohamed Salah on 4/1 and Dominic Calvert-Lewin on 13/2.
Of course, the odds change on a game by game basis. This means that to get an accurate feel for Vardy’s chances of getting the Golden Boot, we recommend you check sports betting sites to find out how he’s expected to perform each match.
888 Casino reckons Vardy is the player most likely to score in his next game and you can find out here why it’s a site whose odds can be trusted. In brief, Vardy has odds of 13/4 to score, ahead of Kelechi Iheanacho on 9/2 and Cengiz Under on 13/2. While these predictions may change by game time, it’s clear the big sports betting sites believe in Vardy.
So, based on what you can see with your eyes and what sports betting sites tell you, it’s fair to say that Vardy’s star isn’t close to dimming.
Can any non-league star match Vardy’s accomplishments?
In recent memory: Does anyone from non-league routes match up to Vardy’s legacy? The short answer is no.
However, there are some notable talents who have risen through the same ranks, like Chris Smalling and Troy Deeney.
On paper, even the likes of Joe Hart seem to match up quite nicely. Boasting two Premier League Trophies to Vardy’s one. Yet, silverware doesn’t tell the whole story.
Hart was pinned down as a future star from day dot; only spending three youthful years at Shrewsbury Town before being swept up into topflight football by Manchester City in 2006.
Additionally, Hart has never been the main man to his title-winning squads. Whereas Vardy was pivotal wherever he went.
Recommended Reading: The history and development of Non-League football
Although it would be enough, Vardy isn’t just the greatest non-league success story ever.
Jamie goes one step further, becoming the most unlikely and biggest footballing success story this decade.
He is a talent very few defenders can live with and even fewer strikers can hope to be — including the wunderkinds nurtured in the big leagues.
