‘I have still got that non-League hunger,” Jamie Vardy says. It’s why the Leicester City striker is so driven at 31. He remembers the rejection by Sheffield Wednesday, toiling in a factory, playing for local sides, the same as Alex Penny, who was discarded by Hull City but, helped by Vardy, is now at Peterborough United. Given the FA Cup’s love of a story, it is fitting that the pair have been drawn together at London Road in the fourth round today, attacker against defender.
After leaving Hull, Penny dealt with the “mental stress” of working in a restaurant, finishing his £9-an-hour shift (plus tips) at 5am, grabbing “little sandwiches or sausage rolls” at a service station before kipping until 8am and then heading off to play for Bedworth United, Stourbridge, Hinckley or Nuneaton Town.
Penny was spotted by Vardy’s V9 academy. He shone in a game designed to parade non-League talent to scouts from professional clubs and was eventually signed by Peterborough United from Nuneaton for £50,000. “I’m doing it the Vardy way,” Penny smiles. After showing Penny around the King Power Stadium on Thursday, Vardy recalled his unorthodox journey to the top. “Having played non-League makes me appreciate it more, knowing the sacrifices I’ve made to be in the position I am now,” he says. “It’s like Alex was saying, working until five in the morning as that’s what players need to do to have enough money to live, then waking up at 8am to go off and play.
“I’ve still got that non-League hunger. I’m pumped up for every game, coming from where I’ve come from. Whoever we play, as soon I step over that white line it’s 100 per cent commitment. That’s how I’ll always be. It’s stupid if you allow yourself to get carried away and change, you’ll end up knackering your career, and thinking, ‘Where did it all go wrong so quickly?’ It’s better to stay grounded.
“I never expected all this to happen. Just because it has doesn’t make me any different as a person. I never ask for anyone’s shirt. I normally just give mine to the kit man and get him to get me a shirt, any shirt, I’m not really fussed.”
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He did swap shirts with Neymar after England’s friendly with Brazil at Wembley. “We were about to start the second half, and I’d kicked him on the ankle in the first half, so I said, ‘Sorry, about the ankle.’ Neymar said, ‘No, it’s OK! After the game, shirts?’ ‘Yeah, fine.’ Neymar was in the tunnel after the game so we swapped. My mates were taking the shirt out of the bag, taking pictures of it and putting it on Instagram, as if I’d got it for them.”
Vardy is still close to his friends from his Sheffield upbringing. “My mates drove a campervan round France [at Euro 2016]. They went city to city, not going to games, just going to the fans’ camps. I arranged tickets for the Wales game [in Lens],” he says. “They didn’t have a clue. I rang them up and said, ‘Lads, where are you?’ ‘We’re parking up here [in Lens], going to the fans’ site.’ ‘Lads, I’ve got you tickets.’ ‘F*** off!’ They knew Bex [Vardy’s wife] was flying out and she usually gets my tickets. But they went. I talked to them later and they said it was the best night they’ve ever had.
“They come to England games at Wembley, come in the players’ lounge and go, ‘I’m going to get a picture with him [an England player such as Marcus Rashford].’ ‘No, leave them alone, chill.’ The players are sound, though. My mates go ‘Vards, see if he’ll have a picture with us.’ So I go, ‘Marcus, have a picture with my mates.’ ‘Yeah, yeah, fine, of course.’ ‘Cheers.’ ” Vardy’s friends embody the huge desire for England to shine at a tournament. “I’m aware of the hunger for us to do well because the hunger is there from me and all the players as well,” he says. “We want to be successful, we want to be winning things, we want to be the best team in the world. We know we have ability in the dressing room that can justify wanting that. We know on our day we can beat anyone. Who knows, come this summer it could be us.”
He loves the idea of swapping shirts with Neymar in the final. “Only if he asks. It can’t be the yellow one, that’s what I swapped last time.”
He knows the passion of the England fans, having also seen footage of supporters in France adapting the Will Grigg song to “Vardy’s on fire, your defence is terrified”. He recalls: “The best video I saw that summer was a guy in a wheelchair, in France, England fan, singing that song. Four people lifted him up in his wheelchair, all singing and dancing. I was going, ‘F***ing hell, don’t drop him please.’ He was absolutely buzzing up there. It was carnage.”
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Vardy loves a tournament. “My first proper World Cup memory, the one that sticks out, was Ronaldinho’s free kick [for Brazil past David Seaman in 2002],” he says. “I was at school. Lessons got put back because everyone wanted to watch the match. We were all in the assembly hall, big screen up, volume up, joining in with the England songs. I was a headless chicken running around the assembly hall. It was heart-breaking come the final whistle.”
He struggles to remember where he was at the next World Cup. “It was in Germany? 2006? 12 years ago, I’d have been 19. I’d have been on holiday somewhere. I know where I was, I was in Ibiza. Lads’ holiday with the Stocksbridge [Park Steels] reserve team. I did two nights straight through. Then I went, ‘Give me my bed.’ ”
Vardy mulls over the suggestion that he has experienced the best of both worlds, throwing himself into the peak partying years of 18 to 24 with his mates, and then enjoying a successful professional career. “I wish I didn’t know that now because that means the rest of my life is going to be shit. No, I do love it,” he says. “All the family stuff is definitely good. If not I’d be constantly thinking about football. I train, get home as early as possible, and the kids are running riot. One minute I’m playing with the three-year-old and her Sylvanian Families toys and the next minute I’m pushing the little one around in his little car, to then having to help the oldest one out on the Nintendo Switch. It’s like a circus in our house. But I wouldn’t change it. I can have my relaxing time with Bex when they’ve gone to bed.”
Vardy’s FA Cup goals
2011-12 season
Rebekah is deeply involved with the V9 academy. After the success of last year’s intake, with four players so far having found professional clubs, V9 now invites applications from players in non-League in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, as well as tiers one to five of non-League in England. The best will be invited to the V9 academy at Manchester City’s sumptuous training ground from June 3 to 8, with Vardy hopeful of attending after England’s friendly at Elland Road against Costa Rica on June 7. “Touch wood, if I’m in the squad, we might get the very last day off [June 8] and that’s when the showcase matches [of V9] are and all the scouts are there,” he says.
Vardy himself is being constantly judged and he knows the battle with England revolves around challenging Harry Kane. “All the strikers are giving it their all and wanting to be playing as much as possible. If it does come down to Harry starting, then he deserves to start, and it’s down to the rest of us to nudge him off his perch. We are completely different strikers. Harry loves to come and get involved in the build-up and that’s how Leicester is going a bit at the minute. I’ve had to adapt, coming shorter on occasion. The gaffer [Claude Puel] likes us to keep the ball, and doesn’t want us to just go ‘boom’ and there I am, on my way [counterattacking]. He wants us to be in set attacks but he also knows with the counterattack we are able to hurt teams.
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“The gaffer’s been brilliant since he came in. He does like to join in training, he’s not afraid to put a tackle in. He tried to on me the other day, and I just had to move out of the way and laugh because I could see it coming. He’s very competitive; he doesn’t like losing.”
Nor does Vardy. Since August 2014, nobody has scored more goals against “big-six” opponents in the Premier League than Vardy’s 22 in 42 appearances. “It could be they build up from the back more, which is giving me the chance to press and win the ball back higher up, and teams playing the high line is always something I enjoy,” he says. He remains as quick as ever.
He receives clips of opposing defenders and analyses them on an iPad while having a massage. “I just look how they defend in general, as a three or a four,” he explains. “I look at individual defenders and see if they prefer showing me down one way, and think about what I can implement to hurt them.” Vardy will deliberately target one, if struggling. “I’d do that if one of them has been booked.”
Today brings the tussle with the 20-year-old Penny. Vardy considers what advice he would have appreciated as a youngster. “It would have been, ‘Don’t stop playing football for a year.’ I got released as a kid and that hit me hard. Instead of thinking, ‘Get straight back at it, other clubs might take you on,’ I was ‘Football’s s***, not bothered about it.’ I regret that.” But Vardy fought back up, driven by that non-League hunger.
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Tony Cascarino: my predictions for FA Cup shocks this weekend
Peterborough United v Leicester City, today, 12.30pm, BT Sport 2
Leicester made wholesale changes against Fleetwood Town and if they do the same here they could get knocked out. Peterborough are not a bad side, and I particularly like Jack Marriott, the striker. I watched him when he played for Luton Town. He is strong, tenacious and can get a goal.
Wigan Athletic v West Ham United, today, 3pm
I think this is the most likely cup upset of the weekend. You have to fancy Wigan, who play in League One but are like a Championship side. They will give anyone a good game, as Bournemouth discovered in the last round and West Ham have a ridiculously long injury list.
Middlesbrough v Brighton & Hove Albion, today, 3pm
Tony Pulis has a very good squad at Middlesbrough. Unless he fields a much-weakened side — which he used to do at West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup — I expect a Middlesbrough win. Brighton’s defence is struggling at the moment, especially
with set pieces.
Cardiff City v Manchester City, tomorrow, 4pm, BBC One
While you have to favour Manchester City here, there is something about Neil Warnock’s Cardiff team that makes this an intriguing match, which will be played in front of a sold-out stadium. Warnock, below, says that he will play his strongest side, and their directness will cause the Premier League leaders problems.
