Jamie Vardy was the ultimate Premier League icon - Leicester goodbye is the end of an era | OneFootball

He signed off in a manner only he could. Two days after Jamie Vardy called Leicester’s season a “miserable, embarrassing s--- show” came the confirmation that it would be his last at the club. But the low of a second relegation from the Premier League in three years does not come close to scratching the unbelievable, record-breaking highs of Vardy’s 13 years in the east Midlands. “We did the impossible,” Vardy reflected.

With Leicester, Vardy became a champion and a Premier League legend. He may be the most unlikely, too: the £1m signing from non-league Fleetwood Town who arrived as a journeyman in 2012 and fired the 5000-1 outsiders tipped for relegation to the top-flight title. The Jamie Vardy movie has yet to be made by Hollywood, but the script writes itself.

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Vardy went from non-league to become the top scorer for the Premier League champions (Getty Images)

Leicester declared Vardy as their “greatest ever player”. He scored 24 goals in their title-winning season of 2015-16, including a Premier League record of scoring in 11 consecutive games between August and November. He was a devastating finisher with lethal pace. He was electric and defences found him unstoppable. That year, Vardy was the Premier League’s Player of the Season, the embodiment and face of the Leicester story.

That’s how it’s remembered, too. Riyad Mahrez was named as the PFA Players’ Player of the Season that year, the left-footed winger who added a touch of class to the impossible job. In midfield, the tireless and selfless N’Golo Kante did the work of two men; the World Cup winner left for Chelsea that summer and, a year later, took the Premier League title with him, underlining his importance to the Leicester miracle.

Vardy stayed at the King Power while Kante left for Chelsea. He turned down an offer from Arsenal in 2017, the summer Danny Drinkwater joined Kante at Stamford Bridge. A year later, Mahrez got his move, going on to become a multiple Premier League champion with Manchester City. As the team improbably guided to the title by Claudio Ranieri was broken up and then rebuilt under Brendan Rodgers, Vardy remained the link to the club’s greatest moment.

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Vardy remained at the King Power as his Leicester team-mates moved on (Getty Images)

He also improved. Vardy was not a one-season wonder. He scored 143 Premier League goals for Leicester, putting him 15th of all time, and netted at least 15 goals in five consecutive seasons between 2017 and 2022. Vardy won his Premier League golden boot in 2019-20, becoming the oldest player to finish as the league’s top scorer at the age of 33. As others slowed down, Vardy remained a livewire, fuelled by Red Bull. Experience added sharpness to his finishing.

He also remained a total nuisance. Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha described Vardy as “special” and “unique” but he was also a wind-up merchant. He tormented home fans as a visiting player, destroying corner flags and mocking Crystal Palace fans by flapping his arms like an eagle at Selhurst Park. On his return to the Premier League this season, eight years on, he taunted Spurs supporters by reminding them of Leicester’s title and Tottenham’s near-miss.

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Vardy reminds Tottenham fans of Leicester’s title (Getty Images)

Perhaps it was the rise from non-league that made Vardy such a character. If Leicester defied the odds to win the Premier League, Vardy’s ascent from non-league, playing for Stocksbridge and Halifax Town, to becoming a 26-cap England international is another remarkable tale. Another was winning the FA Cup with Leicester in 2021, becoming the first player to appear in every round from the preliminaries to the Wembley final.

Vardy stayed with Leicester after their relegation in 2023. Just seven years after winning the title, their dramatic decline into the Championship was a further twist to the Leicester story. If it felt inexplicable at the time, their relegation under Ruud van Nistelrooy this campaign was far more predictable. “My one regret - and I'm devastated about this - is that I'm not saying farewell to you on the back of a much better season,” Vardy said. “This isn't the way I wanted my career here to finish.”

Vardy’s final two seasons in the Premier League brought just three and seven goals, though he may add to the latter. That he struck 18 in captaining Leicester to promotion from the Championship shows he has finally slowed down.

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Vardy added the FA Cup to Leicester’s Premier League title (The FA via Getty Images)

But there is no shame in that. Vardy, the ultimate late bloomer, is now 38. He has not retired, but a shot at another Premier League club feels beyond him, even as the “desire and ambition to achieve so much more” still burns inside.

For now, there are still five games to go, including his farewell to the King Power against Ipswich on May 18. Against Bournemouth on the final weekend, the Premier League will witness the departure of an icon.

Leicester, too, will be waving goodbye to the final piece of the team who achieved the impossible. A year on from the retirement of Marc Albrighton, Vardy is the last of the 2015-16 team to go. An era is ending but as Vardy said, “those memories will last a lifetime”.