Jamie Vardy is expected to call time on his Leicester career after his 500th appearance for the club this weekend. Vardy, regarded by many as Leicester’s greatest ever player, has spent 13 years at the club and is poised to make his final appearance for them at home to Ipswich on Sunday and then not feature in their final Premier League match, at Bournemouth.
The 38-year-old striker, who is poised to captain Leicester for the final time, announced last month, after relegation to the Championship was confirmed, that he would leave the club at the end of the season. He was central to Leicester winning the Premier League against all odds in 2016 and the FA Cup in 2021 but conceded he wanted to exit on a better note, after a desperate season in the top flight, describing his own campaign as a “total embarrassment”. He will hope to score a 200th goal in a Leicester shirt against Ipswich.
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Vardy has no plans to retire and believes he can still play at the top level. He is thought to have interest from the United States. His story is one of the most remarkable in the modern era, the player having joined Leicester from non-league Fleetwood for £1m in 2012 and gone on to cement himself as an England international and one of the best strikers in the Premier League. In 2019-20, aged 33, Vardy became the oldest player to win the Premier League Golden Boot. He scored 18 league goals as the club won promotion last season and he has scored seven in this campaign.
Leicester will celebrate Vardy before and after Sunday’s match, with several of his former teammates from the Premier League title-winning season expected to be in attendance. Supporters will be given souvenir flags to form a pre-game display and after full time Vardy is expected to address the crowd.
