1. Jamie’s name at birth was James Richard Gill (he took the name Vardy from his stepfather).
2. Jamie was rejected by Sheffield Wednesday, the team he had supported from childhood, at 15 for being too small and lightweight (he was under five feet tall at that age).
3. After being rejected by Wednesday, Jamie signed for Stocksbridge Steel, a Northern League club located in a suburb to the north of Sheffield. He was a part time player while working, initially as a barman then a trainee joiner and finally as a technician at a factory which made medical splints.
4. Whilst playing for Stocksbridge, Jamie was convicted of assault (for, he says, defending a deaf friend who was being targeted by a group of yobs). He was compelled, for six months, to wear an electronic tag to enforce a night-time curfew. This meant that, after an hour or so of night matches, he had to be substituted in order to be home in time.
5. Jamie Vardy cost the Foxes £1m from Fleetwood Town, who had just, in 2012, been promoted to the Football League. This was a record fee for a non-league player. Jamie was 25 when he signed for Leicester.
6. In his first season with the Foxes, Vardy scored only five goals in 29 appearances, had lost his place in the team and, according to his own account, was drinking heavily and partying hard. At the time, Vardy asked Leicester’s manager Nigel Pearson if he could go back to Fleetwood on loan, and it was rumoured that Sheffield Wednesday might be interested in taking him. After reassurances he was good enough from the coaching staff in the summer, however, Vardy’s form improved markedly during the Championship winning season scoring 16 goals in 41 games.
7. In the Premier league-winning season, Vardy’s electric pace and fine finishing enabled him to score 24 times in 36 games played, including scoring in 11 successive games, the first Leicester striker since Gary Lineker in 1984/5 to score 20 league goals in a top-flight season.
8. In nine games during the 2015/16 season his goals were decisive in either securing wins (in four games) or draws (in five games). That’s a total of 17 points won by vital contributions from Leicester’s number nine.
9. The Sunday Times later listed Vardy as one of the ‘500 most influential people in Britain in 2016’.
10. Jamie is the third highest Leicester City goalscorer ever with 199 strikes in 499 games. He is behind the two Arthurs (Chandler and Rowley) who scored 273 and 265 respectively. Both players notched up their goals in fewer games than Vardy but, of course, in very different eras.