Part-time footballer to Premier League winner – Trailer for new Jamie Vardy documentary drops

From part-time footballer to Premier League winner – The trailer for the new Jamie Vardy Netflix documentary drops.

The film, titled ‘Untold UK: Jamie Vardy’, looks at the story of “his unprecedented path and his rise to the top against all odds, featuring archive footage and interviews with him, his wife and teammates.

It is available to watch via Netflix on the 12th of May, and after watching the trailer, it is well worth a watch.

In it, he was asked what do you think comes to mind when people hear the name Jamie Vardy?

Those who know him said: “Speed. Aggression. Goals. Friend. Lunatic.”

Jamie: “I need a fucking drink. One word. Probably think twat. I was 20 years old, working long days in the factory. I was still playing part-time football.”

His peers: “He was partying, drinking.”

Jamie: “After the game, I’d go straight to the pub.”

Those who know him: “It was like cheating with him in the team. If somebody chatted shit, somebody got banged. To make that jump from non-league to the Premier League is an unthinkable mountain. And then turning up in shit clothes and a shit haircut.

Jamie: “Who the fuck have you been talking to? *grins*

“I’m doing everything to prove this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Those who know him: “His personality has a self-destruct button. There’s always a drama. There’s always a story. His personality has a self-destruct button. There’s always a drama. There’s always a story.

His partner Rebekah Vardy: “We just couldn’t live our lives normally anymore.”

Those who know him: “But when he crosses the white line, he performs.”

Jamie: “I couldn’t tell you how I did it. It’s crazy.”

His peers: “It’s the biggest underdog story of all time.”

Jamie: “I started to think that I might actually be good at football.”

Jamie spoke after the first screening of the documentary, per BBC Sport: “I don’t have time to reflect, to be honest.

“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.

“Physically and mentally, football is a killer. It’s such a grind on your body and your mind, so I just want to completely forget about it.

“Of course I love it. If I didn’t still love it, I wouldn’t still be playing.

“If you asked me to go and do it all again, I wouldn’t.”

Jamie told talkSPORT and other media on the launch of the documentary: “I am just a freak.

“I don’t think it [a rise from non-league football to winning a Premier League title] will happen again, yet it happened for me. It was hard work. It really was tough, but all worth it.

“I’d probably say I used that term [twat] because of the abuse I get when I am at away games. I know I give it back, but it’s just one of those things…

“They [the fans] are targeting me for a reason, so they must think some bad of me but, listen, I do the talking on the pitch on that side of things. That’s the reason why I used the word ‘twat’.”

Jamie also used the word “joker” when asked for a more positive word.

He continued: “I’ve not really thought about the future. I know it pisses John [Morris] off as well.”

There is an admission that he has no desire to go into management when he retires.

“I’m very much a ‘get today out the way, go to sleep and see what tomorrow brings’ [person]. I’ve always been like that, which is annoying to some I know…

“That’s just how I have always been. I’ve always said when the legs tell me it’s enough then that will be the day [to retire].

“Fortunately for these boys [Vardy slaps his legs] are still telling me they are fine at the minute.

“If my legs were gone, I’d still love football, but I wouldn’t put myself through all this. When they say ‘enough’s enough’ then that is finito.”

On the time he turned up to training tipsy: “Of course that happened.

“It had to happen at one point. Listen, that was right at the start. That’s when I was really struggling to find form and stuff like that. I had already told Nige [Nigel Pearson] that I wanted to go back to Fleetwood, which thankfully he didn’t let me do.

“Comments like that [being told to get his act together by Top] are massive as well. At that time, we didn’t see the owners as much as we did over the years [that followed]. They were always at the training ground and coming in and speaking to the lads.

“And then it was probably from the following season [2013/14] when the group got even closer. And the owners, Top and [the late Leicester owner] Khun Vichai, bless him, were always in and wanting to be in the mix with the lads. And I think that’s what brought the togetherness through.

“Everyone was on the same page and able to have fun. If we went on a night out, the owner [Khun Vichai] and Top, they’d want to come for the meal and be fully involved.

“Personally, at that time, I actually got to speak with Nige [Pearson], Walshy [Steve Walsh] and Shakey [assistant coach Craig Shakespeare] because I was seeing them every day at training, so it was easier to talk to them.”

He did speak to a club psychologist during his time at Leicester over his alcohol consumption.

On his time at Leicester, under Claudio Ranieri, and winning the Premier League: “Claudio obviously deserves credit.

“When Claudio came in, he pulled us all together. He said he’d watched the Great Escape the season before, and that he hardly wanted to change anything, which I think was right for the group we had. We had Nige’s foundations, so it was about getting that back into a place to go and kick on again.

“Do I think we could have done it if Nige was still there? We possibly could have because there wasn’t much different from what we were doing from the previous season.

“Listen, this is football. Managers always come and go. Players come and go. That’s just how it is in our job. We just got back in [following Pearson’s departure] and treated it as a normal season, and off we went. But it wasn’t that normal of a season!”

On the number of appearances and goals he finished on with Leicester before departing: “I thought 500 [appearances] was a good number. To be fair, I had spoken about it with my wife and John [Morris] and it was time for a change. 500 was the perfect number in my eyes.

“I spoke to the club about it. I just turned around and said, ‘Look, I’d rather finish it on 500 at home with all the fans instead of Bournemouth away the week after.'”

“I didn’t want to go to Bournemouth with about 1,000 Leicester fans there and be saying my goodbyes. They completely agreed and were really helpful in letting me do it that way.

“And waking up that morning, there was no way I wasn’t scoring that day. So, 500 [appearances] and 200 [goals for Leicester]: they were very good round numbers to finish on.”

On the chances of seeing someone replicate a career like his, from part-time footballer to Premier League winner: “If I’m honest, I think it’s more about some teams being afraid to take the risk.

“Let’s say you get to a January transfer window and you’re fighting relegation, are you going to take the risk on someone [from the lower leagues]? Or are you going to go for experience of someone who has been involved in that dogfight?

“If you’re at the other end, you probably say, ‘We’ve got a chance of going up here, he’s been promoted twice, we’ll get him’ rather than taking a risk on someone who has no league experience.

“There’s definitely talent in non-league football. To be fair, the non-league lads today are probably looking after themselves better than what I was doing when I was younger. They’ve still got a chance, but I think it is always going to be tough nowadays.

“And possibly the main thing our title win did was give the so-called smaller teams the ambition to want to try to do it and gave them a belief it can happen.

“What you saw with Leicester is that it was the group of lads that were the right fit together. So if you get the right group, the right players for each position and the right mentality, I think anything can still happen.

“It’s tougher, because the bigger teams are just like, ‘We’ll have him. £90m – there you go!’ It’s easier for them to get the players in. It’s just the clubs underneath [the big teams] that have to be a bit streetwise and savvy with their transfers.”