The Fosse Way

The concept of supporting an individual player rather than a team always baffled me until Jamie Vardy came along. That’s obviously not to say I support Jamie Vardy instead of Leicester City. But I found myself tuning in to watch Cremonese play Roma last weekend and felt a similar desire for the home side’s number ten to reach the next loose ball, make the flick on, get the shot away as I do when watching the team I’ve followed for 35 years.

Such is the impact Vardy had on our Leicester-supporting lives. Our club’s current struggles simply help to demonstrate why we would feel so strongly about this particular ex-player, given what he, more than any other single player or manager, helped us to see and do: to walk into any arena in the country and think “we have a chance here”; to stroll around a plaza in Madrid lost in a mix of perfect relaxation and anticipation; to know what it’s like to wait in the queue to get out of a car park near Wembley Stadium still processing that you’ve just watched your team win the FA Cup.

About ten years ago, some young football fans seemed to follow Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo and didn’t feel as wedded to any particular club. And exactly ten years ago today, Jamie Vardy secured his place in the record books. While Vardy might not have reached Messi or Ronaldo levels of global adulation, his effort and achievement in a Leicester City shirt means we can look back on that famous goal with almost as much pride as when our club won major honours with Vardy as our spearhead.

It was an early goal in a game early in the season but the noise that followed the ball hitting the back of the net still ranks as one of the loudest Leicester City celebrations ever. That season was nervy enough, particularly towards the end, so to double it up with nerves for a potential individual achievement was a lot to deal with. It all came out in that moment: relief, release, rejoicing.

An early Vardy goal was an anomaly in that period. In seven of the first nine games of his goalscoring run, Vardy made us wait until the hour mark at least.

It began in the 86th minute at Bournemouth and continued in the 82nd minute against Aston Villa.

In game eight at West Brom, the goal didn’t arrive until the 77th minute when he streaked away from former Leicester defender Gareth McAuley and his future Leicester team-mate Jonny Evans to fire the ball across Boaz Myhill into his favourite net in the world.

And in game nine at home to Watford, he needed Riyad Mahrez to press the ball into his palms after Vardy had won a 65th-minute penalty.

And so the roadshow rolled on up to Newcastle where we could breathe easy at the half time whistle where Vardy’s run was concerned, even if victory wasn’t yet confirmed. Moments before the break, a fierce shot into the net at the near post set Leicester on the way to three points and the top of the Premier League table. The record was equalled and now there was just Ruud van Nistelrooy to surpass.

It was all set up perfectly for game eleven against van Nistelrooy’s former club, the greatest club of the Premier League era. Manchester United were coming to Filbert Way.

It was halfway through Vardy’s goalscoring run that Claudio Ranieri switched up the full-backs and started to make Leicester harder to beat. In the first four games of the run, Kasper Schmeichel conceded 10 goals. In the next seven, he conceded seven. 

In fact, the main difference in the numbers was the 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal, with Vardy scoring twice. Leicester had 13 shots against the Gunners, but Schmeichel faced 21 attempts at the other end. It was too much. After Ranieri’s tinkering with the defensive setup, no team had more than 11 shots against Leicester until the Boxing Day trip to Anfield. Ten years ago today, Manchester United had eight to Leicester’s six. Vardy never had that many opportunities to score and he always seemed intent on showing he didn’t need many.

The thing I remember most about that evening was the doubling of the emotions. Hope for Vardy to score as much as for Leicester to win. Certainly before the game but building towards a crescendo when Leicester broke from a Manchester United corner and Christian Fuchs delivered the no-look pass of his life.

In his first Premier League season, Vardy developed a habit of snatching at the ball. He would hit shots as hard as he could and more often than not, they lacked accuracy. The power of the shot would propel him into the air. Although he quickly became known for the complete opposite as 2015 wore on, famed for his accuracy and ability to place the ball past goalkeepers up and down the country, he still liked to thrash the ball into the net on occasion. He did it at Southampton to draw the scores level, it was often his penalty technique and it was how he chose to finish when the record came calling too. Not steering the ball past David de Gea as he had the previous year for his first Premier League goal but thumping it over his outstretched leg into the far corner of the net.

Bedlam in the stadium and a special moment for those watching at home too as Martin Tyler rose to the occasion with a scripted but sensational piece of commentary, perhaps the most famous words to accompany a Leicester City goal.

“Fuchs… and the ball in behind Darmian… VARDY! It’s eleven, it’s heaven for Jamie Vardy! Hold the back page! Hold the front page! A Leicester player has smashed the record!”

Vardy has always been known for his celebrations but these were the early days of rustling, when we were still starting to see a huge personality emerge. In the harsh glare of the Premier League spotlight, a player building in confidence after years spent fighting to show he belonged among the best, a man determined to be himself.

Shushing the Bournemouth fans.

Sliding on his knees in front of SK1 after equalising against Aston Villa.

A jump for joy at Stoke.

Clutching the corner flag after opening the scoring against Arsenal and later running back to the centre circle after scoring a consolation.

Running away with arms outstretched at Carrow Road.

Retrieving the ball from the net at St Mary’s before punching the air after his leveller, a fan mirroring his ecstasy on the other side of the advertising hoardings with an uncomfortable-looking child clamped with one arm.

Counting the goals on his fingers when scoring against Crystal Palace.

Rustling that corner of The Hawthorns with Nathan Dyer on his back.

Acknowledging Riyad Mahrez following the piledriver of a penalty past Heurelho Gomes.

Blowing kisses to the away end at St James’s Park.

It all built up to that moment as he curved away past the Manchester United fans in the corner. The record had been stolen from one of their legends and was now all his.

Of course you can retrofit explanations for ensuing miracles but the way Vardy’s team-mates mobbed him for an individual achievement as much as an important goal in the context of the game perhaps shows more than the undoubted team spirit of the time. This was a sign that Leicester players and teams could get over the line when it counted.

Equalling the record was amazing in itself but to break it was special in the same way that, for this same group of players months later, qualifying for the Champions League would have been amazing but to win the Premier League was career-defining. This goal more than any other gave all of Vardy’s team-mates the confidence that he would be there with a vital goal whenever it was needed.

This was Vardy’s 40th goal for Leicester City and of course he would rack up five times that number in total, the final goal – the 200th in his 500th Leicester appearance – coming under the management of van Nistelrooy.

I seem to spend half my Leicester-supporting life trying to imagine how I’d have felt years ago if someone had told me what would happen in the future. All the highs and all the lows and all the weird quirks of fate. Vardy being managed by the man whose record he broke before heading off to Serie A at the age of 38 is one of the best. 

But for Vardy to become the greatest player in Leicester City’s history, to surpass Banks and Shilton, Weller and Worthington and Walsh, Chandler and Rowley and Gibson and Lineker: that felt unthinkable in his early days on Filbert Way.

What we do know now is that Leicester City supporters will be talking about Jamie Vardy for the rest of the club’s lifespan and long, long beyond, and, in whatever format, the footage of his record-breaking goal against Manchester United will keep playing and playing.