Jamie Vardy has given Leicester City a huge boost by insisting he will stay with the English Premier League champions next season.
Vardy fired Leicester’s miraculous charge to the title with 24 goals and the England striker’s blistering form prompted speculation he could be lured away from the King Power Stadium by one of the league’s superpowers, but with the Foxes looking forward to competing in the UEFA Champions League and defending the title, the 29-year-old is adamant he will ignore any big money offers.
“We’ve just won the league and will be playing in the Champions League next year. I am happy here,” Vardy said.
Photo: Reuters
Vardy’s remarkable rise this season saw him voted the Football Writers’ Player of the Year, but he knows Leicester owe their success to more than just his predatory instincts.
He claims the turning point in Leicester’s fairy-tale triumph came when boss Claudio Ranieri gave them a week off after they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Tottenham Hotspur in February.
The Foxes returned refreshed and soon afterward enjoyed a 3-1 win at Manchester City that provided the belief they could win the league.
“It worked out perfectly. No one was going to go on a seven-day bender. It was there to relax with family and that’s all we did until we got back to training,” Vardy said. “We’d been knocked out of the FA Cup, the gaffer gave us a week off to completely forget about everything and recharge the batteries. We all ventured off, quite a few of us went to Dubai together as a team, and I think that moment, for him to even think about doing that, showed what he’d thought of us as a team and how much work we’d already put in.”
“To get those batteries recharged for that week and come back fighting stronger was a massive part. It was a great idea,” he said. “I remember sitting on a sun lounger and in the same hotel, Sunderland were there running up and down the beach doing fitness. For me to be relaxing while they’re doing the training was quite nice.”
Vardy was speaking at the launch his own academy on Monday as he pledged to give non-league players a chance to follow in his rags-to-riches footsteps.
Vardy was playing in England’s seventh tier and working part-time at a factory six years ago, but is now an England international.
He was released by Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager and hopes that his new venture, christened the V9 Academy, will give a helping hand to players who do not have access to professional coaching structures.
“I was told I was too small, that I was not ready for the physicality of scholarship,” Vardy told a news conference in Leicester. “I don’t think anyone can be told if they’re good enough at 15 or 16, when you still have so many years to grow and develop. That was my reason. Probably hundreds were told the same and had to drop down as well.”
“Hopefully, we can find them, get them to the academy and get them through. I have done it. That is there for people to see it can be done,” he said. “With the players we get on and if they put the hard work in — and it will be hard, it will not be easy — we will give them Premier League-standard training and coaching. We can give them a chance to make the step up.”
Vardy is part-funding the project and plans for it to become self-sufficient.
“You never forget your non-league days,” he said. “Turning up to away dressing rooms and getting changed in a Portakabin, one shower for the whole squad, which was freezing after 10 minutes so you had to make sure to be the first one in. Whether it’s a low or high, the roots you come from keep you grounded.”
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