“A raw, caged animal, drinking, partying and fighting” — that’s how a new Netflix documentary opens on Jamie Vardy’s life. Now 39 and playing with Cremonese in Italy’s top flight, Vardy uses a stronger expletive to describe himself in the film.
Yet his story remains a refreshing underdog tale, a rags-to-riches hero reflecting on his journey at Netflix’s London headquarters.
“I don’t have time to reflect, to be honest,” Vardy says after the first screening of his Untold UK documentary, with wife Rebekah quietly watching, occasionally reacting to questions or his responses. “At the minute, it’s playing, the season finishes and I just want to forget about football. I need to mentally forget everything and get back to a normal place.”
Vardy knew when he chose Cremonese over Dutch side Feyenoord last summer that he was joining a relegation battle. They still sit in the drop zone with three matches left.
“Physically and mentally, football is a killer,” he continues. “It’s such a grind on your body and your mind, so I just want to completely forget about it.”
But he clarifies it’s not a complaint: “Of course I love it. If I didn’t still love it, I wouldn’t still be playing.” Yet asked if he would relive the journey, he admits, “If you asked me to go and do it all again, I wouldn’t.”
From playing in the eighth tier at Stocksbridge Park Steels to winning the Premier League and becoming an England international at Leicester City, it’s easy to see how grueling the path has been.
Released by boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday for being too small, the documentary unearths footage of his blistering goalscoring form at Stocksbridge while he also worked in a factory making medical splints. But in 2007, Vardy admits he had “no stability” — convicted of assault while out drinking, he wore an ankle tag for six months and faced a 6pm curfew, forcing him to leave matches early.
Moves to Halifax Town — where he met long-time agent John Morris — and later Fleetwood Town followed, before his £1m transfer to then-Championship side Leicester City.
Woven throughout are “The Inbetweeners,” a nickname for Vardy’s small, all-male social group from Sheffield, who act as his main support alongside his wife. “If one of us is having a problem, then get it in the group. Might get abused for a bit but at least it’s us lot keeping an eye on each other,” he says.
Former Foxes midfielder Andy King says Vardy experienced a “culture shock” at Leicester, where the striker admits he initially felt not good enough. Physiotherapist Dave Rennie corroborates accounts of Vardy’s struggles with alcohol, worsened by the pressure, including “manufacturing his own Skittles vodka at home.” Vardy would arrive at training hungover, and on one occasion was uncontactable by a then-pregnant Rebekah.
There was a feeling he might throw away his career, but a “good psychologist,” the patience of manager Nigel Pearson, and his own efforts to mature after the birth of his daughter Ella kept him going.
Fame brought further problems. A 2015 Sun on Sunday story showed him using a racial slur against a Japanese man in a casino. He later described it as “a massive, massive learning curve,” explaining he was never taught which terms he could and could not use.
The film also highlights “one of the harder things” Vardy experienced when he rushed home from a team-bonding trip to Helsinki.
