Jamie Vardy ignores distractions to take giant leaps with England
The striker is putting transfer talk, film scripts and a cracked wrist to one side to focus on scoring goals for his country at Euro 2016There was a message flashing on Jamie Vardy’s phone when he returned to England’s team hotel in the Picardy countryside. It was sent by Claudio Ranieri and a reminder, for this unlikely hero, that everyone back at Leicester was rooting for him. Two words, short and sweet – and classic Ranieri. “Congratulations champ,” it read.
Read into that what you will, if you are looking for clues about whether Vardy is planning to leave the Premier League champions for Arsenal later this summer, or whether he will choose to stay where he is and emerge, potentially, with a second double-your-money contract in six months.
Vardy certainly looked touched by Ranieri’s text but, equally, his mantra throughout this tournament is that the biggest dilemma of his professional life will have to wait. “There is only one thing I want to do here and that is play football to the best of my ability,” he explains. “If I let things start distracting me, I’m not going to be able to do that, which will jeopardise the team as well. So everything has been completely blanked out except for England, England, England.”
Easier said than done, one imagines, given the amount of other issues in his life at the moment. A player whose career has taken in Stocksbridge Park Steels, FC Halifax and Fleetwood Town must decide at some point whether to become Arsenal’s showpiece summer signing. An autobiography is due out later this year, with a working title, From Nowhere, My Story, that neatly sums up his career. And, of course, there is also the small matter of a film, even if the star character – shark-like eyes, Sheffield accent, diamond-encrusted jewellery – is not giving away too many details. “I’m not at liberty to say,” he replies, to a slightly impudent question about who might play Arsène Wenger.
All that really can be said is that, whatever happens next, Vardy has experienced a dream year. “I will always be pinching myself,” he says. “It’s no secret where I’ve come from with my football and I will certainly never forget where I came from. To be scoring for my country in a European Championship is an unbelievable feeling.”
He likens his career to “being on a travelator”, motioning with his hand to signify the forward momentum, and it is tempting sometimes to wonder when the brakes might be applied. “Every leap has been huge,” he says. “To start with, going from the Conference to the Championship [Fleetwood to Leicester] was massive for me. When Leicester were promoted to the Premier League that was another huge step. Then there was the jump to international football. They have all been massive steps.”
What is not so widely known is that the man whose goal changed the complexion of England’s game against Wales has established himself as the scourge of opposition defences, with 24 goals in the Premier League last season, despite needing an operation. “I’ve got two big cracks in my wrist, which need a bone graft,” he says. “That’s why I have the cast on. I’m having the operation after the tournament and it will keep me out for three weeks. I did it playing against Aston Villa at the start of the season, so that’s how long it’s been fractured.”
Nine months on, there was a snapshot of Vardy’s new life – and a level of fame that, by his own admission, would once have seemed unimaginable – in the slightly awkward moment at England’s latest press conference when a Russian journalist wanted to know why he had blocked Lee Chapman, his professional lookalike, on Twitter.
Otherwise, Vardy sounded like he meant it when he talked about being entirely focused on England and, after everything that happened with Ranieri’s team last season, it would certainly not be a bad thing for Roy Hodgson if one of Leicester’s title heroes can bring that spirit and togetherness to the national side.
Vardy’s mentality, after all, is straight from the Leicester manual. “We have to go out with the mindset that whoever we’re up against, we can beat them. Everyone’s beatable, it’s as simple as that. So just attack everyone, head on, and see what happens, that’s the best way. I don’t think there’s any need to be worried about anything. If we start worrying that’s when things will start going wrong. We know we’ve got a lot of ability so there’s no point being afraid of teams.”
Hodgson must certainly be aware that Vardy will not be fazed in the slightest should he be brought into the starting lineup for Monday’s game against Slovakia. Yet the player can understand if his combination of pace and energy casts him in the role of impact substitute. “You can see the logic, definitely,” Vardy says. “If the other team’s players are getting tired it’s probably easier to exploit it that way. I’m happy either way, but it’s down to me in training to get into the gaffer’s mind and hopefully get a start. I do feel that I’ve got momentum. I have the confidence, especially with the season I’ve had, that if I get opportunities they are going in the back of the net.”
The book is out in October and the film comes a little later. “It’s out in 2017, from what I’ve been told,” Vardy says. “They’re just getting all the actors sorted.” Arsenal will expect a decision straight after Euro 2016 and then, of course, there is an operation and the start of the new season. Vardy has also crammed in a wedding this summer (and is entirely unapologetic, incidentally, about missing an England game in the process). It has been, as he says, an arm-pinching year. “Let’s just hope that travelator keeps going up,” he says.
Daniel Taylor / Guardian
