Jamie Vardy

Vardy back to his best against City!

When Jamie Vardy walked off the pitch on Saturday, the crowd cheered his name. As he waved to the fans, a smile crept across his face; a smile that was a mixture of joy and relief. Jamie Vardy had been on a horrible run. He hadn't scored for 10 Premier League matches (see this week's podcast for a lesson about the past perfect). That horrible run ended last Saturday when Vardy hit a superb hat-trick in Leicester City's 4-2 win against Manchester City.

It was not only a return to form for Vardy, but a return to form for Leicester, too. While Leicester have been playing well in the Champions League, they've been having problems in the Premier League. However, they were back to their counter-attacking best against City and Vardy as well as Riyad Mahrez were at the centre of everything. Leicester went ahead after only three minutes; Mahrez played a wonderful pass to Islam Slimani who set up Vardy for goal number one. The second goal arrived just a minute later, Andy King scored from the edge of the area. After only 20 minutes it was 3-0 when Mahrez played a fantastic pass to Vardy for his second and Leicester were cheered off the pitch at half-time. In the 78th minute, Vardy scored Leicester's fourth and his third when he scored from a very difficult angle after a defensive mistake by John Stones. City scored two consolation goals but they now have only one win in their last five matches while Leicester can start thinking about a brighter New Year.

I am very pleased for Jamie. When he finished, I said 'welcome back'. Leicester manager, Claudio Ranieri.

Did Jamie Vardy win the Premier League for Leicester?

Jamie Vardy didn't win the Premier League for Leicester but his 24 goals last season were definitely very important. At the end of the season, Vardy was awarded the Premier League's Player of the Season Award and became a regular international player for England. During the 2015/16 season, he also broke the Premier League record for scoring in consecutive matches. Between August and December 2015 (11 matches), Vardy scored in every Premier League match he played in. Vardy and Leicester definitely took the football world by surprise and, this week, Vardy was named the 8th best player in the world at the prestigious Ballon d'Or awards in Paris. In fact, Vardy has been such a success that Hollywood are getting involved. A film script has been written and filming will begin next year for a movie about Jamie Vardy's life and his success at Leicester.

The script is nearly finished so now they have to get a director in and hire all the actors.  Jamie Vardy speaking about the 'Vardy Movie'.

From part-time player to the Premier League! 

Vardy's story is one that will inspire any footballer who is playing at a low level and dreams of making it to the Premier League. At the age of 23, Vardy was only earning £30 a week from football, playing for a small local team called Stocksbridge Park Steels in South Yorkshire. His main job was working in a factory in the local area. Vardy started scoring lots of goals in non-league football (more than four divisions lower than the Premier League) and moved to Fleetwood Town. He helped the team into the Football League for the first ever time and became the most expensive footballer in non-league history when Leicester City paid over £1 million for him to join the Foxes. At 25 years old, Vardy was playing professional football for the first time and helped Leicester to promotion to the Premier League in 2014. In Leicester's first season back in the Premier League, Vardy helped Leicester escape relegation when they won six of their final eight games. The following season was a dream as Leicester and Jamie Vardy became Premier League Champions for the first-ever time. 

Football English Quiz

There was a lot of football vocabulary in this article. Try the quiz below and test your understanding of football vocabulary. You can find all the answers in bold in the text above.