Non-league to top-flight rise ‘a killer’ on body and mind – Vardy

“A raw, caged animal, drinking, partying and fighting” is the opening line of a new Netflix film about the life of Jamie Vardy.

Vardy, 39 and now playing in the Italian top flight with Cremonense, uses a harsher expletive to describe himself in the documentary.

Yet, his story is also refreshing as an underdog, rags-to-riches hero, who is attempting to reflect on his life and career to a group of journalists at Netflix’s HQ in London.

“I don’t have time to reflect, to be honest,” Vardy says, speaking after the first screening of his Untold UK film, with wife Rebekah watching on quietly but occasionally reacting to questions or her husband’s 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 Cremonense over Dutch club Feyenoord in the summer that he was joining a team facing a relegation battle, and they remain in the drop zone with three matches left to play.

“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.”

It is not a complaint from Vardy, who clarifies: “Of course I love it. If I didn’t still love it, I wouldn’t still be playing.”

But asked whether 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 while at Leicester City, it is easy to see what a gruelling journey it has been.

Vardy was released by his boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday for being too small, but the documentary unearths footage of his blistering goalscoring form in his Stocksbridge days while also working in a factory making medical splints.

However, in the first of a series of problems in 2007, Vardy admits in the documentary he had “no stability” in his life. He had been convicted of assault when out drinking and had to wear an ankle tag for six months.

He also had a 6pm curfew which meant he had to leave matches early.

Moves to Halifax Town – where Vardy met his long‑time agent John Morris – and later Fleetwood Town followed, before his £1m move to then‑Championship club Leicester City.

Woven throughout are “The Inbetweeners” – a nickname given to 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,” Vardy says.

They were needed, as former Foxes midfielder Andy King says Vardy experienced an initial “culture shock” at Leicester, where the striker admits he initially felt not good enough.

Physiotherapist Dave Rennie also corroborates accounts of Vardy’s struggles with alcohol, worsened by the pressure of the move, including “manufacturing his own Skittles vodka at home”.

Vardy would arrive at training hungover and, on one occasion, uncontactable to his then-pregnant Rebekah, or Becky as he affectionately calls her.

There was a feeling he was going to throw away his career, but the work of a “good psychologist”, the patience of manager Nigel Pearson and his own efforts to grow up after the birth of his daughter Ella kept him going.

Fame still brought further problems. A 2015 Sun on Sunday story showed him on video 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 after being told a tabloid was publishing a story about his secret biological father, who he had no prior knowledge of.

Still, Vardy became the poster boy and top scorer for Leicester’s Premier League title‑winning campaign in 2015‑16, went on to lift the FA Cup and fulfilled his agent’s prediction, made when he signed for Halifax, that he would one day play for England.

Asked whether he could have achieved more internationally after retiring from England in 2018, Vardy replied: “Possibly. We’ll never know.

“I’ll be honest, going away with England is unbelievable – you want to play for your country – but the mental side of it was tough. That changed when Gareth [Southgate] came in, but before that you were stuck in your room all day.

“You trained and then you were just back in your hotel room, pulling your hair out. There’s only so much time you can spend on a PlayStation or speaking to the kids on video calls. You’ve already not seen them and now you’re getting pulled away for another two weeks. It’s tough.

“At the time, after the World Cup, I just wanted to protect [my legs] as much as possible, prolong my club career, and as I’m still going now, it was obviously the right decision.”

“I watch as many games as I physically can and it’s not nice to see,” Vardy says of Leicester’s plight, having returned to watch them last month before they were relegated to League One.

But what is next for Vardy?

“Management? No. I’ve not really thought about it,” he says. “I’ve not looked that far down the line.”

Rebekah, watching from a plush mini‑cinema room, describes his lack of planning as “infuriating”.

There is no direct reference to the infamous ‘Wagatha Christie’ social media spat between her and Coleen Rooney, but she features prominently as Vardy seeks to refine himself throughout his coming-of-age story.

She lingers afterwards, curiously asking members of the media for their honest assessments of the film, where Vardy appears hands-on with his parenting.

“We bring them up as normally as possible,” he said of his kids. “They need to have a home life, be kids and enjoy it, but also do what I didn’t and work hard at school.”

That mentality to focus on the next day gives him a chance of playing another season at Italian top-flight side Cremonense, which would take him into his 40s.

“I wake up in the morning, train and go again – the same on matchdays,” he says.

“I give as much as I can. I still love football or I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”

Finally, Vardy is asked if another non‑league footballer could achieve what he has.

“I think, luckily, I was just a bit of a freak,” he added. “I don’t think it will probably happen again, no, but it happened for me and it was hard work.

“It really was tough, but all worth it.”