Jamie Vardy’s rags-to-riches story from non-league to England International will inspire thousands of aspiring players battling away in our own youth clubs in Australia who feel they go unnoticed. If this story does not make you believe in hard work and determination, not to mention self belief, nothing will. The man had a plan although his dream, in the beginning, was thought unrealistic by many. Jamie didn’t.
My training group at the college is currently undertaking modules in goal setting. This serves as a great example as a player achieving what many thought was impossible. Kids Keep Believing.
Below I have taken an excerpt from a great article I read by Adam Shergold, which I have updated. Enjoy the ride.
For the thousands of footballers who play in non-league, Jamie Vardy is living proof their dreams can still become reality.
For those below-the-radar players who put up with the backwaters, the muddy pitches, the pocket money salaries and the constant juggling of football with a day job, Vardy’s incredible rise to the top is a real inspiration.
This is a fairytale where new chapters keep being written, with Vardy taking his goal tally to the top of the leader board.
The forward, released by the Sheffield Wednesday FC Academy as a teenager for being too small, combined playing for Stocksbridge for £30 a game with back-breaking work in a carbon fibre factory.
Of course, Vardy’s main business was scoring goals and 66 in 107 league games for Stocksbridge led to a move across Yorkshire to FC Halifax Town in 2010.
A year later, after 27 goals had delivered Halifax the Northern Premier League title, his value had increased tenfold as Vardy was bought by ambitious Conference side, Fleetwood Town.
It proved excellent business for the Shaymen, whose chairman David Bosomworth told Sportsmail earlier this year: ‘We always knew he was special. He had hunger, desire and work-rate.
I hope his story is a message to players rejected by football league clubs who think about packing it in. Don’t. Go into non-league and show what you can do.’
It soon became apparent that Fleetwood was just another stepping stone for the prolific forward, now earning £850 a week.
He scored 31 goals and guided the Lancashire team into the football league for the first time. For some games, as many as 30 scouts from bigger clubs would descend on their Highbury Stadium.
Among the many managers who admired Vardy was Roy Hodgson, then in charge of West Brom, and the Baggies tried to sign him. Little did we know then that Vardy would eventually work with Hodgson at an even higher level.
Their mission to reach the League complete, Fleetwood sold Vardy to Leicester City in May 2012. The fee was £1m, potentially rising to £1.7m and a non-league record.
Nigel Pearson was key in persuading Vardy to choose Leicester ahead of his other suitors. It was the Sheffield Wednesday connection – Vardy grew up near Hillsborough, Pearson was the Owls skipper.
But it was far from an auspicious start. The striker struggled for form and after criticism from fans, even considered quitting football at the end of his first season at the East Midlands club.
Again, it was Pearson, with assistant Craig Shakespeare, who persuaded Vardy to carry on – with spectacular results.
16 goals in the 2013-14 season guided Leicester back to the Premier League as champions and we all know the rest of the story.
The question now is how much more can Vardy, the embodiment of dreams coming true in football, go on to achieve?
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