Friday 28 October 2016 08:11, UK
Jamie Vardy is making up for lost time. A Premier League winners' medal, appearances at both Euro 2016 and in the Champions League, and now a Ballon d'Or nominee. Not bad for a lad who was still playing non-league football at 25. Adam Bate met up with the fairytale finisher to discover the secrets to his training regime and why Kevin Phillips could be his inspiration (yes, really)...
Jamie Vardy is early for our interview. That's not typical in football. But then, Vardy isn't the typical footballer. He does open up with a grin and a light-hearted quip about being in a hurry to get back to his Playstation, but who can blame him for eyeing some down time? It's been quite a year for the Leicester - and now England - striker.
Following the drama of that improbable title triumph, there was the equalising goal for his country in the Euro 2016 win over Wales. He's embracing Champions League football for the first time now too. Away from the pitch, Vardy is balancing commercial commitments with a new autobiography that's already making headlines.
It's been a busy time but Vardy remains calm. He's had time to take it all in. "I've had a chance to reflect on it all," he tells Sky Sports. "There was a bit of time in the summer when I got the opportunity to relax and think about what's happened. But it's all been good."
Some of the tastier morsels in Vardy's book reference his habit of sipping port on the night before matches and an earlier penchant for drinking skittles vodka. He insists the reality isn't quite so shocking. "A lot has changed," he says. "There's no vodka anymore. That was ages ago. It's just something I did when I was younger."
Famously, of course, those younger days were spent playing non-league football having been released by Sheffield Wednesday. Still a Stocksbridge Park Steels player at the age of 23, it's no wonder that Vardy's preparation was, by his own admission, "massively" different to the methods he's practising today in Nike's latest football training gear.
"I was training twice a week on a miserable, cold night," explains Vardy. "Your training was to go out and do a bit of ball work, a bit of fitness and then finish off with a game. It was constantly just lengths of the pitch. That was it. Then it was off home, get into bed and then go to work in the morning."
Such a routine wasn't ideal but it does partially explain Vardy's exponential improvement since then. He enjoyed success in the lower leagues, winning titles with Halifax, Fleetwood and Leicester before even reaching the Premier League. But each step of the way, the exposure to better training methods has helped make the rise seamless.
As a Premier League player, those lengths of the pitch are a thing of the past. "Obviously when you're doing fitness work at a club all week and every week," he explains, "it's all about specific drills for what you need to do on the pitch. So I'd be doing a different drill to the centre-midfielders. It's all specifically tailored for me.
"For example, my drills are high speed. It's all about trying to break the line with a sharp sprint. That benefits me. If I went and did a half-marathon it probably wouldn't." It seems to work. According to the Premier League's tracking data, Vardy was the fastest man on the pitch in the first three games at the King Power Stadium this season.
How much further Vardy can progress is open to debate. He's already a Premier League winner anyway and turns 30 this January. But working with England will help to keep his game sharp - "being around the country's best players can only help" - and, importantly, he still gives the impression that he's a player keen to learn.
That's a trait that Leicester as a team will need this season. "We know we've always got to adapt," says Vardy. "We know that last year probably won't happen again. Teams are more wary of what we're about now. We know we have to adapt on the training field and put that into the matches with plans A, B and C if needed."
The signings of Ahmed Musa and Islam Slimani have added competition in attack. While Vardy jokes that he'd "probably still gamble" on winning a flick-on from the likes of Musa or Shinji Okazaki as well as Slimani and Leonardo Ulloa, they are all very different strike partners. Claudio Ranieri has plenty of options.
With the Champions League to contend with, he'll need them too. "We've not really had a day off," says Vardy. "After a Saturday game, we're in on a Sunday to cool down and make sure we're fully back at it again. But it doesn't really affect things too much. It's basically like you've had a game on the Saturday and then you're in the cup on a Tuesday."
The routine is working so far. Leicester have already beaten Club Brugge, Porto and FC Copenhagen with Vardy winning a trademark penalty in the first of those games against the Belgian side. The only surprise was that they weren't anticipating the run. "Hopefully they've not taken as much time as Premier League teams to watch us, so we might be able to spring one or two more surprises," he says.
"We're going to have to get used to the referees. They're different in every single league across Europe. They are the little aspects we've got to be wary of but it's enjoyable. That's what we said from the start. It's something we didn't expect to be playing in so we need to just go out there and enjoy it. We need to express ourselves."
The early signs are that the club's European adventures do seem to be impacting on their Premier League form, with Leicester losing their third game of the season by late September - the same number of defeats that the team suffered throughout the entirety of their title-winning campaign.
But with the team having overachieved so sensationally last term, it should be little cause for alarm. Especially when Vardy and the team are keeping a lid on expectations. "The targets that have been set are exactly the same as last year," he insists. "We want to get to 40 points first. We'll try to reach that target and keep going from there."
As for Vardy's personal ambitions, longevity is the goal. Having had to fight his way to the top, he's in no rush to give it all up. Kevin Phillips, his former striker coach at Leicester, played in the Premier League at 40 let alone 30, and it's not lost on Vardy that Phillips was playing for non-league Baldock Town in the eighth tier at the age of 21.
"Because I've come into the game a lot later I've not had so much wear and tear on my legs at this age that I would have done if I'd come onto the scene at 17 or 18," he says. "So hopefully the legs will hold up. I just want to keep it going for as long as possible." The attention might be constant. But Jamie Vardy isn't close to being tired of it just yet.
