Jamie Vardy Reflects On A Century Of Premier League Goals
- Jamie Vardy scored his 100th Premier League goal against Crystal Palace earlier this month
- The striker is the first Leicester player to reach the milestone in the Premier League era
- He says it is a ‘massive achievement’ but will reflect more once his career comes to an end
- Vardy also discusses his favourite strike and past battles with Manchester United
When City’s No.9 tapped in the second goal during Leicester’s 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace on 4 July, he became the first Foxes player to reach the historic landmark of scoring 100 Premier League goals.
Some 27 players had already achieved the feat since the league’s inception in 1992, but none of those joined the top flight so late in their careers, making Vardy’s accomplishment all the more impressive.
The forward took time ahead of Sunday's visit from Manchester United (4pm kick-off BST) to reflect on the milestone, but admits the significance of his achievement is yet to fully register.
“It’s a massive achievement but it’s one of those, ‘yes you’ve done it’, but it’s all about the next game then, so you don’t really get time to have it sink in,” the Club's all-time top Premier League goalscorer said.
“It’s probably something that, when I finish football, I can look back on it and actually realise what it means.
“The season finishes and you get away to forget about football for a few weeks and then you’re straight back in to start the next season. So it’s all about constantly going and going.”
That mantra is more important than ever in the current climate, with so many fixtures being played in a short amount of time.
The 33-year-old also says he is missing the electric atmosphere usually generated by the Blue Army, who were unable to be in the stands to celebrate Vardy’s 100th and 101st Premier League goals.
“It’s relentless but these are circumstances that no one could have foreseen happening so it’s one of them, we just have to get on with it,” he continued.
"There are not that many down days to recover properly but you’ve just got to make do the best that you can.
“It’s dramatically different, it really is. You’re used to be at King Power Stadium and there’s 30,000 fans there getting the noise going, but I think it’s like football when you were a kid.
“There’s no fans there, you’re just playing because that’s what you enjoy doing, what you wanted to do as a kid, so it’s one of those, you just have to try and blank it out that the fans are not going to be there and concentrate on the football side of it.
“In Non League, we used to get 100 fans, but you can hear every single one of them what they were saying, so it is different, whereas obviously now we can hear the staff and players.”
The forward picked out his most memorable goal from the Premier League collection, which came at the Hawthorns in 2015, while also recalling his first-ever top flight goal from earlier that season - in a home victory against this weekend's opponents, Manchester United.
Jamie Vardy: 100 Premier League Goals
Enjoy all the goals Jamie Vardy scored in the Premier League to reach the 100 club!
He said: “West Brom away, the year we stayed up [is my favourite] because of what it meant. We knew we had to win and the fact it happened like it did late on to get the victory just made it stick [with me].
“It’s not one of my best technically, but definitely one of the most important. It was the start of what turned out to be a beautiful end to the season."
“It was massive [to beat United],” Vardy added. “We’d just been promoted, all the world-class players they had and so for us to come away 5-3 winners was really enjoyable.
“I’ve had a few of those dodgy hairstyles in my time so that’s another thing I can look back on!”
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