England is home to the best soccer league in the world. With stadiums filling up to capacities of 65,000 people there is no doubt that it is the home of soccer. In England, soccer is not a game it is a lifestyle. People live, breathe and will die for their hometown clubs. One thing these supporters love even more is hometown talent. With the Premier League being the hardest, most popular league in the world, this attracts the best players from all around the world. But when there is that one boy from England running around on the field there is a different kind of pride that sets into the supporters. This leads me to Jamie Vardy.
Jamie Vardy started his chase to become a pro player in Non-League Football. The English have a total of 9 professional/semi-pro leagues. Non-League is considered the bottom five. This is where Jamie Vardy’s career begins, at a small club called, Stocksbridge Park Steels. Here Vardy was making hardly any money only about $55 dollars a game. Because of these unlivable wages Vardy also had to work during the day and then play football during the nights and weekends. Many players in this situation would have quit but Vardy’s love for the game kept him playing because it wasn’t about the glamour and money, Vardy just loved soccer.
After some success with Stocksbridge, Vardy was then bought by Halifax another Non-League club. This time Vardy would go on to make more money but still not what we would expect a quality pro to make. Vardy’s salary was now around $15,000 for the season. Then after having another big season, Vardy went on to be bought by Fleetwood Town for $150,0000. During his time at Fleetwood Vardy continued to bring attention around himself. After helping Fleetwood to a promotion where they would move up to the next league and Vardy having some remarkable stats scoring 34 goals and 17 assists in only a 40 game season Vardy’s life would change forever.
Vardy has now gone on to sign a huge seven-figure transfer fee to play for Leicester City. At Leicester, Vardy has gone on to break the record for most consecutive games scoring a goal with a total of 11 goals in 11 games. He went on to win the 2016 Premier League title with a team that was nowhere near as skilled as the big money clubs they went up against. He also was called into England international duty where he’s represented England at the European Cup and the 2018 World Cup.
With Vardy’s passion and perseverance, he has truly gone on to show people why you should pursue any dream you have big or small. To go from Non-League to Premier League and jump up over 5 levels of professional soccer is truly remarkable. With Vardy’s loyalty to the game, he has been gifted a long term successful career and you can truly see why Jamie Vardy is having a party!
Unnoticed to Superstar 