Leicester City have announced that Jamie Vardy is leaving the club after 13 seasons.
The Foxes striker, teammate of Super Eagles midfielder Wilfred Ndidi for several years, will depart at the end of the campaign having made more than 400 appearances and helped the club win an English Premier League title and FA Cup.
“I’ll be devastated on the day when it is the last [game], but good things, they come to an end,” Vardy said on the club’s website.
“It’s going to be one of those emotional days. Who knows which way that can go. If you ask anyone, I’m not really an emotional guy.
“Nothing like that ever comes across with me, but when you’ve been somewhere for so long, and it is time to say goodbye, you just never know what your personal reaction is going to be.”
“Especially for me, being here so long, the fans took me in like I was one of their own,” the 38-year-old striker continued.
“You always want to repay that and that’s why this Club will always have a massive place in my heart. It’s family. The fans have, ever since I’ve been here, stuck with us through thick and thin.
“It comes to game days, and the atmosphere’s great. And then you get the die-hard ones who are travelling to every single away game as well. It’s really appreciated, it really is. Nothing in the world these days is cheap, so for them to be spending their money to back the club they love and, fortunately for myself, being involved in that for all of the past 13 seasons, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
The legendary Leicester striker has played a huge part in the Foxes’ success since his arrival from Fleetwood Town in 2012 for just £1 million, scoring 143 Premier League goals.
His most prolific campaign in the competition of 24 goals was recorded in Leicester’s stunning title-winning season of 2015/2016.
It was during that memorable campaign Vardy would set the record of scoring in 11 consecutive Premier League matches between August and November 2015, as he surpassed Ruud van Nistelrooy’s tally of netting in 10 consecutive games.
In 2019/2020, he won the Golden Boot for the first, and only, time becoming oldest player in Premier League history, aged 33, to win the prize.
His other club honours include the FA Cup, a trophy Leicester won for the first time in their history in 2020/2021, the 2021 FA Community Shield, as well as helping them reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2016/2017.
Vardy also won 26 caps for England, scoring seven times between 2015 and 2018, playing at UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Premierleague.com
