Jamie Vardy – The Fine Wine
In a sport of fine margins, age often slows those numbers. They widen, often drastically, the further past 30 you get. Goals become few and far between, as they say. But not in Vardy’s case. His one-man mission to torment every defender he sets eyes on continues to this day.
Last season, as he turned 35, Vardy scored 17 goals in all competitions. Fifteen of them came in the Premier League. He was in the A-list of top-flight goalscorers yet again, despite missing 13 league games through injuries. We can only imagine what his goal tally could have been.
No player has scored more Premier League goals since their 30th birthday (99) than our iconic No.9. While it’s hard to imagine whippet-like Vardy being physically able to speed up, he isn’t slowing down. He’s got work to do in blue. The man who’s lifted the Premier League, Championship, FA Cup and FA Community Shield wants more at King Power Stadium.
Naturally, his game has adapted. It’s shifted, evolved. His mere presence on the field is enough to petrify defenders – a useful weapon for any team. People may occasionally point to a lack of touches in games. What they don’t seem to notice, however, is the chasms created in defensive backlines when Vardy darts off, dragging a marker with him. Sometimes, less is more.
The next time another Leicester player, with a different number on their shirt, scores a goal, watch what Vardy’s doing. It’s quite likely you’ll see him working in the shadows, hooking a defender out of position, opening up a fissure, pulling someone wide… handing the pen to a team-mate to write tomorrow morning’s headlines.
And then, of course, there’s the moments when the ball comes through to Vardy himself. How many times have we seen it before? It looks like he can’t make it, but he does. The angle appears too tight, but it isn’t. The goalkeeper seems too close, but he’s not. The net bulges all the same. We’ve seen it 133 times in the Premier League, or 164 times in all competitions. Undeniable.
We are the lucky ones. There are Leicester City fans not yet born who will never get to watch Jamie Vardy play for the Foxes. Of course, they’ll know the story of how one man climbed the pyramid from its base to its apex – slim chances that anyone will ever do that again.
They’ll be able to find the clips of his goals online. But we were there. We saw it live. We witnessed the greatest Leicester City striker of all time.