London (AFP)
Since his 100th Premier League goal scored last Saturday against Crystal Palace, Jamie Vardy belongs to the aristocracy of attackers in the English championship. But, at 33, he remains this player of modest origin, forged in the lower divisions and passed pro late.
"I will always give 100% and I will never stop running," he promised when he arrived in 2012 in Leicester.
Sunday, against Bournemouth (19th), for the 35th day, Vardy will still be there to press, make calls, and perhaps score to try to send Leicester (4th) to the Champions League.
At an age when some begin to consider retirement, he could also win his first title of top scorer of the season, with his 22 achievements in 34 days ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal (20), Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Danny Ings of Southampton (19 each).
With the Foxes, Vardy found the club of a lifetime. A team dedicated to playing spoilsports that invites itself without a fuss at the table of the great, like him.
Leicester were in the Championship (D2) when they went to collect him in Fleetwood Town, paying 1 million pounds (1.1 M EUR), unheard of for a player in the 5th English division.
Three years earlier, Vardy was playing two notches lower, at Stocksbridge Park Steels, a name that smells of the South Yorkshire mining basin from which he hails.
- Electronic bracelet -
Failed to 16 years of the training center of Sheffield Wednesday, his club of heart, he divided his time between the fields and his days of 12 hours in a factory of prostheses.
Without being a bad boy, Vardy has his share of shady stories, like this fight at the exit of a bar in 2007 which forced him to play 6 months with an electronic bracelet and only 60 minutes during matches at the outside, to respect his judicial control.
And if he now has an impeccable lifestyle - he has a cryotherapy room in his house for recovery - he has been slow to give up certain vices.
In his autobiography published in 2016, he told how, shortly after his arrival in Leicester, the club doctor, surprised that an injury was slow to heal, discovered that he very regularly consumed vodka in which he melted small tart candies.
On the field, however, he quickly rose to the challenge with the rise in the Premier League of Leicester in 2014, then the incredible title of 2016, under the orders of Claudio Ranieri, in the nose and beard of Manchester. City and Liverpool.
That year, he moved to a goal from the "Golden Boot" for top English goalscorer due to a missed penalty against Everton on matchday 37.
- Faithful to the Foxes -
"If I had scored it, I would have been a striker, but I sent it to the stands. I never thought about it," he said in an interview with The Athletic.
If Vardy runs a lot, it is neither after the honors nor after the money.
In the summer of 2016, he refused Arsenal's golden bridge, ready to pay 20 M GBP (22 M EUR) in release clause, when his former teammates Riyad Mahrez, N'Golo Kanté or Danny Drinkwater went to cash their talents with more or less happiness in City or Chelsea.
Vardy "is the proof that one can decide to stay and continue to progress," summed up his coach Brendan Rodgers when he crossed the 100 goal mark.
It only took him 6 seasons and 206 games to join the club of 28 "centenarians", with a predilection for big game hunting.
Of his 102 league goals, 34 were scored against the "Big 6", his favorite victims being Liverpool (7) and Arsenal (10), against whom he tied again on Tuesday (1-1).
In 2018, when he was already 31, Leicester did not hesitate to offer him 4 years of contract, until 2022. He will then be 35 years old.
"I have no doubt that he will play again after that," predicted teammate Jonny Evans.
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