-Hey, Jamie. -Hey. You okay?
Fucking hell.
I need a fucking drink.
-All right, lad? -So, um, I'm curious.
In one word, what do you think comes to mind for most people
when they hear the name Jamie Vardy?
Wow.
One word.
One word?
That's a tough one.
Speed.
Aggression.
Goals.
Loyal.
-Friend. -Good friend.
Friend.
Legend.
Incredible.
One word?
Probably think "twat."
It's Vardy!
Terrific from Vardy.
People see a wind-up merchant
teasing the opposition fans,
but there's much more to him than all of that.
He's the biggest underdog story of all time.
For a boy who came from non-league football,
it is the ultimate footballing fairy tale, isn't it?
To make that jump to the Premier League is Everest without oxygen.
That's when it really got real.
There was a load of red flags.
Police record, drinking, partying, fighting.
His personality has a self-destruct button.
Jamie Vardy has been fined.
Shit. Like, what have I done here?
You are gonna screw everything up that you've worked so bloody hard for.
Hello.
And that's when everything changed. Everything.
Vardy volley. Oh, what a goal!
Something special is happening here. We could achieve the impossible.
We can win the league.
Anything can happen. Anything can happen in football.
Jamie Vardy has made history!
From non-league prince to Premier League king!
It's Jamie Vardy!
Okay, so where did this all start for you, Jamie?
Oh, can I ju-- Can I just get a beer first?
Yeah, definitely. Uh, where are they?
-Cupboard just behind you. The little one. -Yeah.
Should be Modelos at the bottom.
Yeah.
-Right, this is where it gets weird. -Yeah.
And can you get my big wooden cock out in my drawer that the lady's leaning on?
Oh, yes, found it.
There you go.
Cheers. Thank you.
Right, ready.
Okay, so where does your story begin?
-As in football or just life? -Life.
They're definitely intertwined.
So it started in Sheffield, just outside of Hillsborough.
I was probably 19, 20 years old, living with my parents.
Family life was fine. I was working in the factory.
Making crutches, Zimmer frames, anything to help people who couldn't walk.
It was really hard work. It was long days and an absolute killer on my back.
Definitely wasn't my dream as a kid,
but I just thought that was the way my life was going.
That's the path I was on.
So when you were a little kid,
what is it that you wanted to be?
My dream as a little kid was to play for Sheffield Wednesday.
Every week, I'd go to the Sheffield Wednesday matches
and then see David Hirst.
And Hirst. It's a great goal.
He was a striker.
To play the one-two with Waddle. Hirst through! Hirst scores!
And seeing him score,
then all the fans were up jumping and celebrating.
Remembering what that feeling was like. It was, I wanna emulate what he's done.
I wanna be a striker.
So when I was ten,
I got asked to sign for Sheffield Wednesday's youth academy,
which is virtually the next step
to make the path and become a professional footballer.
It's a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice and dedication.
But signing for the academy was everything.
At school, any breaks we had, football.
Lunch break, football.
Three times a week. After that, training.
I really, really wanted it.
I'd got all the way up to the under-16s.
I was quite small for my age. Not had a little growth spurt yet.
But at that point, when you get that far,
it's like, "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm gonna play football when I'm older."
But they said no.
"You're not big enough to make it as a professional."
"I know you dreamed of doing this, but no, you're not good enough."
It was hard to take.
After that, pro-football wasn't even crossing my mind if I'm honest.
At 20 years old, if you've not made it to the Premier League by that age,
chances are you're not gonna make it.
But I was still playing part-time football for a team called Stocksbridge.
It was the eighth tier.
The eighth tier. It's crazy, innit?
It's a long way to the top. No chance that was gonna happen.
Stocksbridge is a non-league South Yorkshire club.
It's called non-league because it's not actually a professional league.
Water's been turned off or turned cold, and lights are dimming,
and pitches are heavy.
There's only 100 to 200 fans turning up,
but it was just mates, football,
and let's have a giggle.
I signed for the first team and ended up on a contract
at 120 quid a week, I think it was.
I remember the first time he came training, we did a 12-minute run.
I can't remember how many times he passed me.
He were just like a racing snake.
He were passing me and going, "Keep going, Brett."
"Keep going. You're doing well."
Needs to play it left. Brings it inside.
Oh. Oh, what a good goal. What a good goal.
He brought it from his own half. Jamie Vardy…
What Jamie had was everything. Pace, power, ability, tenacity, bravery.
My God, he made up for what he lacked in physicality, body-wise,
with his aggression.
I was always one of the smaller ones.
Against fully-grown blokes, who you think they're gonna kick the shit out of you,
you've gotta keep getting back up,
letting them know that nothing's gonna faze you
and that you can also give it back.
He were just such a talisman for us every single week.
We were telling him all the time, "You've got something. You can make it."
But he were just so blasé about it all.
"Yeah, all right, yeah. Yeah, thanks for that, Brett."
"We're having a beer."
I don't quite think he grasped the fact that he'd got a special talent
that needed to be thought about and progressed upon.
I was never, ever thinking something more serious with football could happen.
An average week for me was work eight till five,
then straight from work to training.
Then home, bed, ready to go to work again.
And drinking sessions with your mates were normally Saturday, Sunday.
So literally, after the game on a Saturday,
I'd go straight to the pub with The Inbetweeners.
Everyone had the same interests.
We liked to drink, we liked football.
-Yeah. And Wednesdays. -We liked Wednesdays.
-So everyone had a common interest-- -What about girls?
Yeah, we liked girls.
Why are you called The Inbetweeners?
-From the program. -From the program The Inbetweeners.
-Oh, friend. Oh, new friend. -Oh, new friend.
-Friend. -Oh, friend.
Look at us. We're a set of oddballs.
Where did the name Sick Note come from?
Who the fuck have you been talking to? Uh, yeah, Sick Note.
No, I was very, uh… I was very good at having Mondays off.
Very, very good.
At that point in my life, there was no stability whatsoever,
and it got me in a world of trouble.
One night, I was out with one of my mates.
Someone started taking the piss out of him for… for wearing a hearing aid.
So we started having a scuffle with him,
and, then before you know it, in the back of a cop car.
Got charged with assault.
The judge gave me six months on an ankle tag.
So basically, I had to be in the house from 6:00 p.m.
and weren't allowed to leave till 6:00 a.m
And he couldn't play midweek games.
He'd have to come off early on Saturday games
to make sure he got home in time.
That then hindered scouts coming to this football club to watch him,
to progress him to that next level.
At some point, I pinned him up in the changing room and said,
"You need to grow up and realize what talent you've got."
It was still all about enjoyment, the football.
Still wasn't thinking anything could happen from it.
But it was more, I've got myself in this shit.
I've let people down. I've let all my teammates down.
It really isn't a nice feeling to have.
Mindset moving forward from that was… don't be a dick and do it again.
I think if I didn't have football, I'd have probably
carried on going down that route of getting in trouble,
which leads to a place you don't wanna be.
Prison.
We got to play-offs in his first season together.
The second season, we were just sort of unbeatable,
and we won the Sheffield Senior Cup at Hillsborough
and won promotion together.
Jamie played a massive part in that.
I'd got to a stage where, yes, I was enjoying myself,
but I just-- I needed something new.
That's when I eventually signed for Halifax.
Sad time for us when we lost him.
But I think it came at the right time for him to take that opportunity.
They were a bigger club.
The stadium was… It was a stadium.
It was definitely a step up.
It was never on me mind about going higher or anything like that.
The normal path to the Premier League
would be through an academy.
So to make that jump from non-league to the top of the pyramid
is an unthinkable mountain.
Everest without oxygen.
But we knew he could do it.
I'd already been told two years before that football weren't for me,
so it was more of the same, just enjoy myself.
-How pleasing was that? -Yeah, very pleasing.
We were told before the game they were scoring a lot of goals.
They weren't leaking a lot, so to keep a clean sheet and score six,
very impressive.
Did you…
I was based in Sheffield still, still living with my parents.
Working at the factory.
So you've done your full-time shift in the day.
Jump in the car, one hour to Halifax, train, and drive home,
getting ready to start another shift the next morning.
It takes it out of you, but I was able to play a sport that I loved
and score goals.
I first heard about Jamie from a player.
He was playing for Halifax Town at the time.
He said, "Look, we've just signed this player, uh, called Jamie Vardy."
"He's an absolute lunatic, but we're gonna win the league because of this boy."
And I remember going, "Halifax, what-- What division are they in?"
And I'm-- I'm looking down the leagues, and they're in the seventh tier.
I'm thinking, "There can't be particularly good players
in the seventh tier of English football."
Football was my life. I wanted to be a football agent.
But I was struggling to even get a meeting with a player, let alone sign one.
I thought, "I'm gonna get in my car and have a look
at this lunatic called Jamie Vardy."
Go on, Jamie.
Seeing this player with just electrifying pace,
and then you saw the magic.
And the magic is, is when the ball's played in behind, he was in.
And when he's in, he didn't miss.
What a goal by Jamie Vardy! Who else?
I'm looking, like, "Has anybody else seen this?"
I had no doubt in my mind this kid had a real chance.
The big problem then was trying to track him down.
He never answered his phone.
I'm going, "How can I not get hold of a player
that's playing in the seventh tier of English football?"
Probably in the pub. Know what I mean? That's probably where he was.
Yep.
Did eventually get him, and he eventually did take a meeting.
Just got out of bed when the doorbell was going.
I remember knocking on the door and I'm wearing a suit,
you know, 'cause I wanna make a good impression.
Yeah, he come to the door and he's just wearing a pair of shorts.
Yeah, just answered the door in me underwear.
Just looking at me, this no-hair skinhead going, "What do you want?"
I said, "Well, you know, I'm-- It's John. I've come to see you."
"Oh yeah, yeah. Come in."
I remember talking to him and saying, "Look, I think you're incredibly talented,
and if you can focus on football and, you know, take it seriously,
you can go all the way, and you can play for England."
I hear a chuckle in the background, his mum laughing in the kitchen.
That's literally dreams on top of dreams. It's…
It's stupid to even… to even consider, I think.
Basically said he wanted to be my agent. And I think I said yeah to get rid of him.
So I ended up with… with John Morris.
Been together ever since.
Would you like to clarify, you will be here next year?
Uh, no, I'm signing for Ibiza Town.
Going to Ibiza on holiday, and I'm never coming back.
We got promoted, won the league.
So I spoke to John, I just said, "Listen, I'm quitting my job."
He's like, "What?" I went, "I'm just gonna give football a go for a year."
"If it don't work, it don't work."
It was my job then to get him in the football league.
I had to just hound people.
I was cold-calling, speaking to people, texting them, messaging them.
But nobody wanted him.
You had to try and convince people to look beyond the problems.
He wasn't young, he was… he was 24. That's old in football.
Police record, drinking, partying, fighting.
Then I got a phone call, and this team came out of nowhere.
John just said, "Do you know where Fleetwood is?"
To which I replied, "No."
He's like, "Search it up. That's where you're going."
Fleetwood at the time were in the fifth tier.
But, again, anything beyond that was not even a consideration
in my mind at all.
I've always believed that I'm a good player.
I've just never wanted to get carried away.
This is Jamie Vardy.
And Vardy all the way. It's in!
That's it for Fleetwood!
The Fleetwood Town season, for me, was where the magic happened.
…for the first time in their history.
Straight to the Fleetwood danger man. Vardy scores!
He was happy. He was loving life. It was like cheating with him in the team.
Jamie Vardy!
I think I scored 31 in 34 games, I think it was.
Jamie Vardy scored nine goals in his last nine games.
Has been watched in recent weeks by scouts.
Because he was doing well in that first half of the season,
instead of me chasing people, people were now calling me.
He went on, they won the league. Another medal for him.
He was player of the year. He was the main man.
One day, I got a call from the chairman of Fleetwood saying,
"I have agreed terms with three clubs from the Championship,"
which is the second tier of English football.
This is happening. It's coming.
Maybe I am right.
You know? Maybe I am right.
And one of those clubs was Leicester City, managed by Nigel Pearson,
who, Jamie won't admit it, is a big hero of his.
Nigel was the captain of Sheffield Wednesday.
It was exciting.
Obviously, I'd seen him play for Sheffield Wednesday,
so that was quite a massive thing for me.
His story was interesting. Meeting him was interesting.
He was very quiet and very…
Just very quiet when he came in,
but he's got a glint in his eye, let's put it like that.
I think the quiet side of it is, obviously,
I had a couple of drinks the night before.
Feeling a bit rough.
Nigel was going, "So come on then. Are you signing for us?"
And that was it. There was only one place I was gonna go.
We got there. We got there.
It was a contract around £8,000 a week.
More money than he's ever earned in his life.
I was so excited. I mean, this is it.
You know, I've gone from the seventh tier to the second tier.
Jamie's reaction was one of, "Okay."
But not, "I can't believe it, John. We're there."
"We're going to the Championship." No hugs, no high-fives. Just, "Okay."
When Leicester put the bid in,
I'd say that was me starting to think that I might actually be good at football.
But I was 25 and only just turning pro.
Now going the unchartered waters 'cause the jump now has gone massive.
It's gonna be a big step, but I think I can do it meself.
And obviously, the gaffer's obviously been watching me.
He thinks I can do it as well, so I just hope I can repay him.
He wasn't a stereotypical academy product.
There was an edge to him.
And you could see it in his eyes, in his mannerisms,
the way he carried himself.
The way he attacks a game of football
is significantly different to any other player that I've worked with.
Strikers don't tackle. Jamie tackles.
I think it got announced three days later.
I was in the pub back home with The Inbetweeners.
We were in here. There used to be a telly in the back.
We're all just sat round the table, and it come up on the news.
He has rewritten the record books,
but the £1 million price tag doesn't faze Jamie Vardy.
It's obviously an honor. I must have been doing very well this season.
And if they're willing to pay the money, then I've just gotta make sure
I can play on the pitch and prove I'm worth it.
Went crazy on news channels, papers.
There'd never, ever been a non-league player
go for a million pounds.
Probably say at that moment in time, that's when it really got real.
What did you know about Leicester City as a club
at that point?
If I'm honest, as a club, not a lot.
There is a lot of pride coming from Leicester.
But at the time, they'd won nothing.
No FA Cup, uh, no Premier League title. No--
They'd never been champions of England.
It's a very middle-of-the-road, average Midlands club.
They'd reached the depths really. In 2008, they dropped to League One,
to the third tier of English football, for the first time in their history.
Aside of bereavement in your family, it's the next worst feeling I've ever had.
And it's been a slow rise for a number of years after that.
They are back in the Championship once again.
They fought their way back into the Championship,
and there was fresh hope.
They are the ultimate underdog team.
Except for the people of Leicester, everybody writes them off.
We were never really talked about as contenders for anything.
A lot of the players we had were deemed surplus to requirements.
They'd been at other clubs, their contracts had run down.
They were free agents that nobody else really fancied.
But they like to surprise people.
Every season, there's something that happens.
There's always a drama, there's always a story.
At first, walking into the dressing room, it's…
You see the caliber of players in there. You're like, "Fuck. Wow."
I was, I wouldn't say star-struck, but I'd probably say in awe of it all.
I'll be totally honest, I'd not heard of him beforehand.
I've heard the news, I saw the media, and you expect a lot.
You know, you're expecting, okay, this guy can score goals.
Can he score goals at this level?
It must've been daunting when he first went in there.
Turning up in a shit car, shit clothes, and a shit haircut.
Came in the changing room,
dressed like he'd just been woken up in Malia and come back to football.
He had crinkle-bottom jeans, big V-neck T-shirt, jewelry on his wrist.
It was almost endearing seeing him with those clothes.
It was almost like, "Bless him, he's trying his best."
The first game was Torquay in the Cup. Managed to score.
I was just thinking, "Right." Just carried on as normal.
Just done what I was doing last year, started it again now.
It doesn't work like that, unfortunately, in football.
He didn't quite find his feet, didn't quite make his mark.
He's come from non-league where he knows how the hustle and bustle works.
He can outsmart defenders in that league.
Vardy trying to use his pace to full effect.
When you step into the Championship,
the defenders will read your movement.
They will match you.
And I know he definitely did struggle a little bit in his first season.
In goes the cross. And Vardy's header! Off the bar!
-He looked miles off it. -Looked off it.
-His touch weren't there. -The level looked too far of a level.
-Yeah. -To where he was--
-Out of his depth. -Yeah, he looked out of his depth.
Martyn Waghorn will replace Jamie Vardy.
Wasn't like I wasn't trying.
I was giving it my all. It just wasn't good enough.
And it was tough, because now, all of a sudden, everyone's involved.
More fans, papers, everything.
You do start letting it get into your head that,
"Right, okay. Maybe I'm not good for Championship."
The biggest test when he came to Leicester was to be a professional.
When I interviewed him in that first season,
he just seemed to be a little bit lost.
He was still trying to find the measure of the standard of football
he was now being asked to play.
I think he suffered a culture shock.
The level's gone up a couple of notches to what he's used to,
and he's trying to still live that lifestyle.
Some of the stuff I saw him do in the first year,
you would never believe that would be a professional footballer.
Just used to go and have a drink to forget about it as much as I can.
Being with your mates, talking about, like, the past, the old memories.
But that drink could turn into two days.
He openly admitted about how he used alcohol
to address some of the pressures he was feeling,
and about how he would go about manufacturing his own alcohol,
the Skittle vodka.
He'd sit at home, massive bottle of Belvedere,
and he'd just tip packs of Skittles in the top, leave it in there to dissolve.
Then he'd say, "It tastes unbelievable. Tastes like Skittles."
It didn't. It tasted horrific.
I remember going into the apartment.
There were pizza boxes, mail all over the floor.
I remember sorting out his bills, 'cause he wasn't paying his bills.
He'd been late for training a couple of times in a row.
And I said, "Look, Jamie, you're gonna be back in non-league."
"You've got one chance in life. And you either take it or you don't."
But Nigel was incredibly lenient to Jamie.
Almost like a father-son relationship.
We knew he was having a tough time.
There's an element of his personality which has a self-destruct button.
Challenged, but unfairly.
It felt the right thing to do
to give him that added support which he desperately needed.
It was tough. At one point, I asked him to send me back to Fleetwood.
I thought I could go back there and go straight back to scoring goals.
But Nigel turned around and said, "Look, it's not happening."
"We believe in you."
"We think you're good enough, so you're going nowhere."
At that point, if I was gonna go any further, I needed that stability,
that someone to be there with me,
and to help.
I'd just come out of a not-a-great relationship.
I'd had a little boy,
and I was working at a nightclub in Sheffield.
And I had a call from someone
who said, "I've got a birthday party I need you to organize."
"Can't tell you who it is at the minute."
At which point I'm thinking, "Oh, for God's sake."
You know, car crash.
I found out it was Jamie Vardy, and I was like, "What's the big deal?"
I didn't even know who he was at that point.
But when I learnt that Jamie was a professional sports player,
it made me wanna run the other direction very quickly.
There's this kind of preconception that they're all idiots,
they're all arseholes.
So Jamie's birthday came round,
and sure enough, Jamie rocks in shit-faced.
He had one friend on each side holding him up basically.
And I'm thinking, "Oh my God."
Yeah, I turned up to my own party absolutely steaming.
The next thing I see,
his friend's ordering big bottles of champagne.
They're now out on the dance floor,
tipping them over other members of the public.
That were mad.
-It was a good one. -Yeah.
I'm actually fucking over this now.
Like, these group of lads are not a normal group of lads.
They're like mental cases. They are like yobs.
Yeah, it sounds like all my mates, if I'm honest.
-Is it that? -No.
Is it?
-Is it that side? -No.
-It's all the same signature. -Very similar.
Wes Morgan's on the dance floor with this bottle of champagne,
pouring it into anyone's mouth that would be willing.
The next thing I see
is Jamie being literally carried out of the club by two of his friends.
And I was like, "Oh, thank God for that. At least one down."
Later that evening, I get a text message from Jamie saying,
"I really wanna see you," and I was like, "Nah, delete."
One of the first things I did soon as I woke up was message her.
She was good-looking. She had this aura about her.
I legitimately thought that that's the one.
Jamie keeps messaging me.
And it was relentless, then it was calling.
I'd responded a couple of times going, "Look, just forget about it."
He just would not leave me alone.
No, I weren't-- I weren't letting it go.
There was no chance that was gonna happen.
It got to the point where I was like, "Oh, fuck it."
"Just respond, go meet him, and then that'll be the end of it."
And the more I sat with him, the more I realized that actually,
behind this crazy, alcohol-loving, wild, party boy,
was actually a guy that was really kind,
was really good at listening, and he was really good to talk to.
We decided to go on a couple more dates, see what happens.
Just being around her, it was, like, an unbelievable feeling.
Then it started getting serious.
There were other girls.
People are gonna latch on. He's a famous footballer. That's it.
So he never knew how to take any of it because it might come, it might go.
I felt like Bex was different though. Within weeks, he was calling her wifey.
In the time I'd been with him, I'd never seen girlfriends.
Like, proper girlfriends.
But it soon came that Becky was then coming to games.
I thought, "Ooh, this one might be staying around."
And then she told me she was pregnant on the second time that I saw her.
Your natural reaction is to think, "Is she in it for the right reasons?"
Wasn't planned,
but we decided that, you know, we were gonna give it a real go.
But he kept getting really, really drunk.
Every weekend, disappearing.
I had a scan coming up and couldn't get hold of him.
Nowhere to be seen.
So I called John Morris, and I was like,
"John, go and find him. I need to speak to him."
Some people have a drink for eight hours. Jamie had gone on a bender for 36 hours.
And it would always be with The Inbetweeners.
So I could ring them and say, "Look, where is he?"
We were all sat in his local pub having a drink.
And we were, like, round the table downstairs,
and then she just stormed in out of nowhere.
-Her face was thunder. -She were mad.
-Yeah, she were mad. -She were mad.
I went, "You, me, conversation now."
Like a little schoolboy. "Come on."
He moved faster than he did on the field.
I just said to him, "What is your deal?"
"Like, what is going on?"
I knew I could tell her anything, and it was never too much for her.
He really started to open up then about why he behaved the way he did.
He was like, "I've got all this pressure on me now
because, you know, they've spent all this money."
"And I just don't think I can live up to those expectations."
And I'm like, "Why do you doubt yourself so much?"
"You have an incredible opportunity to do something really special."
I was like, "How do you feel about that?"
And he goes, "Oh, it's probably never gonna work."
He said he'd always been rejected and been told he wasn't good enough.
And so, naturally, we do start to believe that's true.
But I said to him, "You are gonna screw everything up
that you've worked so bloody hard for
if you don't change your lifestyle choices."
I'm not telling you to stop drinking. I'm just telling you to rein it in.
And what she was saying was right. It needed to stop. It really did.
I needed to hear it.
We talked for hours and hours, and it was like therapy for him.
And it was at that point
that things really, really did turn around.
And in quite a short space of time then.
She had his interests at heart. That's when I feel like--
-We lost him. -Yeah, and then we lost him.
Vards had gone. We had to buy our own pint.
Vards pre- and post-Becky is two completely different people.
Having that stability, that calmness in his life,
reflected in his performance.
Still with Vardy. Still with Vardy. Takes his man on.
Jamie Vardy, there it is! That's the goal with Jamie Vardy!
Goes to strike it. Goal. Jamie Vardy.
She'd always be pushing me
to better myself and go in the right direction,
and it's 100% what I needed.
Poor back-pass from Jay Tabb.
A Jamie Vardy who's in a good place mentally
is then gonna have a positive effect on other people.
Still Jamie Vardy. There was only gonna be one outcome.
Here's Vardy. Goal.
The goal that season was to get promoted to the Premier League.
And we flew through that league,
got 102 points, and Vards was a massive part of that.
He really emerged as the player that could be the spark for the team.
Jamie Vardy, such a romantic story.
Two years ago, he was a member of the Fleetwood Town side.
Then he came to Leicester last season for a million pounds,
but he's really delivered in this campaign.
In just five years,
you climbed from the eighth tier of football
to the top flight.
How many years? Five?
-Five. -Fucking hell.
There's a gulf between every division,
but the biggest jump is from the Championship to the Premier League.
Players from all over the world, the best of the best,
come and play in the Premier League.
They're playing Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City.
It is the richest league in the world,
and there's a definite link between money and success in the Premier League.
Clubs like Leicester are not expected
to compete with the elite of English football.
A promoted team going up, it's a struggle all season.
Your main aim is to stay in that league.
For me, personally, it was, now let's see if I can do it at this level.
A sense of energy and expectation
around the King Power Stadium ahead of this one.
The sun has come out right on cue.
It was a bit of excitement more than anything in the dressing room.
Lads were excited to be playing against Man United.
Everybody watches Man United all over the world,
so all of a sudden, the audience isn't just England, it's worldwide.
By and large, these Leicester players have plied their trade
in and around the Championship. Some of them…
This was a huge David versus Goliath game.
Little old Leicester had been out of the Premier League for a decade.
And now they were gonna take on Manchester United,
royalty in English football.
That's when it felt real.
Here they come, Leicester against Manchester United.
I don't care who I'm playing against.
That's how I've always been.
You need to be just focusing on yourself. That was the main focus that day.
I will never forget the Man United game as long as I live.
One, 'cause he's got the stupid bloody mohawk.
Jamie Vardy starts a Premier League game
for the very first time.
Coming out with a haircut like that, what a knobhead.
Yeah.
Honestly, when he came home from the barbers, I was like,
"What is wrong with you? Why can you not just be normal?"
It was just me being me.
I thought, why not?
Let's just go into this new season and give it as good as I can.
Falcao, he's looking for van Persie.
Right on cue, Robin van Persie off and running for the season.
Rooney. Di María has continued his run.
And Di María goes for the finish, and that is a sensational goal.
They score early doors.
You think, "Here we go."
"This is gonna be one of those where it's just, don't get pumped."
Manchester United must've thought, "This is gonna be easy."
This could be 4, 5, 6 - nil.
But suddenly, then Jamie Vardy came to the floor.
There's only one goal in it. Let's keep pushing and see what happens.
Van Persie. Di María. Deflected and in.
Herrera, wheels away.
3-1 down. This is not looking good.
It was like the game was done.
I could see Jamie looking back at the bench to say, "Are you sure?"
"There's still plenty of time."
You can still get something here.
He was running his heart out to try and create something for the team,
try and create something for himself.
He looked like a thug on the pitch, this raw, caged animal
with power, pace, energy.
It was just him everywhere.
It felt like there was two Jamie Vardys on the pitch. And he bullied them.
Rafael responds and gives away a penalty.
There's Cambiasso!
And then what happened next was miraculous.
Ritchie De Laet has got Vardy up ahead and free!
Vardy could win it here for them!
He scores!
The comeback of all comebacks!
I was buzzing, not gonna lie. Absolutely buzzing.
Jamie Vardy with his first ever Premier League goal.
It's hard to score goals at any level,
but to do it in the best league in the world,
it shows that this is where I'm supposed to be.
I think the haircut might have helped.
Jamie Vardy's having a party Bring your vodka and your Charlie
It's a fairy tale, and, uh, he deserves great credit, this guy,
for showing people that he can be a player in the Premier League.
Leicester five, Manchester United three.
It was something that we never thought we'd really see.
It was, you know, really Jamie Vardy five, Manchester United three.
How big a day was this for you?
Three years ago this weekend,
playing for Fleetwood against Kidderminster.
Incredible, isn't it?
Yeah, it's massive. Obviously, it's not been an easy journey to come here.
Now we're at the top, but it's all about staying here now.
Managed to get three points. Moves us up the table.
A lot of people had never heard of him, but that was the game
where everybody's turning round, going, "Who the fuck is that guy?"
Everyone wanted to find out more about the man behind the name.
And he absolutely despised doing interviews.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
He wasn't confident enough in front of cameras.
Are we recording?
-I was shite. -You'd cringe.
You'd watch him, and you'd be like, "Oh no."
I've settled in to the standard of foot--
Wahey.
Sorry, booty call.
When you're brought through the academy, you get all that training.
He's been chucked in from Fleetwood, like "Yeah, go for it."
Uh… Uh…
Youngsters now have to do media training,
whereas I did what any normal kid does.
Just got to the swimming pool, jumped in the deep end.
Swim. Swim.
Can you do that again? But don't look in here.
But I like looking in there. I'm a poser.
There's no better way of learning, I'll be honest.
Hey, Becky.
Just saw a bit of shine.
-How've you seen a shine from there? -I asked.
-You asked? -Yeah.
-Fucking hell. You got spies in here? -I was waiting till you'd finished.
I'd not finished. I was just halfway through it.
Stop frowning. Just relax your face.
Right.
No one likes a shiny Vardy.
No one likes an unshiny Vardy either. Do I look better on camera now?
Beautiful.
After the Manchester United game,
Sofia came into the world.
There was a real air of excitement.
It was new beginnings.
And new beginnings for everyone as well.
Oh, are we… are we on a swing?
Smile. Hello.
The both of us, over the moon.
Hello.
The family side of it were great.
Me and Bex had now got our own little bundle of joy.
But the football side of it was… was a bit more tough.
Leicester currently bottom of the league,
and scratching around for a goal, never mind a victory.
We were in a bad run.
We were in a run of games where we couldn't get a result.
They were bottom of the table for 140 days.
There was no chance of survival. They were absolutely rock bottom.
The dream looked like it was gonna turn into a nightmare.
Leicester have lost again.
They stay bottom, and they have an almighty fight on their hands
to stay in the Barclays Premier League.
Any chance for you for them staying up?
I think they've gotta win four of their remaining eight games to, uh…
to give themselves a chance.
They've only won five all season, so I think it's a tough ask.
Towards the end of that season, we were dead and buried.
People had written us off. I think the bookies had stopped taking bets.
And we were… we were doomed.
So Leicester City get us off and underway…
If they didn't win that day,
they would really be staring down the barrel of relegation.
Time was running out for them.
Four minutes to be added. We are into those four minutes now.
It was 2-2. It was over 90 minutes. Yeah, we were down and out.
If I'm being told I can't do something,
then I'm doing everything physically possible to prove that I can.
Left-footed, Jamie Vardy! What a goal from Jamie Vardy!
Has he just got Leicester City a huge Premier League lifeline?
That goal gave us the spark we needed
to start believing we can do this, you know?
"Fuck this. We're not getting relegated."
That was his mantra. He would say it, he would shout it.
He would get people to where they needed to be.
"We are staying up" is the cry echoing around the King Power.
Yeah, Ulloa!
Finds the bottom corner.
Can they do it? Can they escape?
There was a lot of pressure, but Vards just made everyone relax
because of his personality and his character,
and that was infectious.
And if I'm more relaxed, I'll perform better.
What a chance! And Vardy was there.
Vital win for Leicester City.
They can almost taste safety now.
Looking for Vardy again. Oh, Mahrez!
Yet another win for Leicester City.
They've almost doubled their tally in just over a month. Incredible.
And that is the full-time whistle here at the Stadium of Light.
Leicester City have guaranteed their place in the Premier League next term,
with a point here at Sunderland
and a run that defies all runs in the Premier League.
I don't know how it happened. Unbelievable achievement.
"The Great Escape," they call it.
The club was gonna be playing
Premier League football the following season.
That was incredible for… for everyone.
And Vards was very much at the heart of that.
I was out shopping for holiday clothes,
and I got a text message saying that I'd been called up to the England squad.
And I just looked at it and closed it, thinking someone was taking the piss.
Have you had to pinch yourself at all?
I've been pinching myself every day,
obviously, since, uh, the squad got mentioned, and…
I expected it. If you believe it in the seventh tier of English football,
why am I gonna change when you get to the first tier?
I remember him saying back in the day,
"You're gonna play for England." I'm laughing at him.
But he was right. He's… First time he's been right.
Vardy and Rooney up front for England.
That's something that wouldn't have been said a year or two back.
A year or two? I don't think it'd have been said three months ago.
That's the ultimate honor. Playing for your country.
Pulling that jersey on with them three lions on.
It's stuff of dreams.
It probably was stuff of his dreams, and he made them reality.
Jamie's different to the players that normally play for England,
because they've come through academies.
They're gonna have the best nutrition advice.
Strength conditioning as well.
And here comes this freak of nature, Jamie Vardy,
living off pizza, Pringles, and Red Bull.
Everybody wanted a piece of Jamie Vardy.
But he weren't ready. You know, we weren't expecting it,
and it just went "poof."
They're interested in everything.
Somebody trawled through his Facebook and found this "chat shit get banged."
What's "chat shit get banged"?
This is the problem, I don't know.
I really don't know. It's doing me head-- Everyone asks.
I would imagine it would've been
a pretty standard Tuesday night for Jamie Vardy and the boys.
Somebody chatting shit, somebody got banged.
-He put it on Facebook. -Twitter.
-"Chat shit get banged." -Yeah.
So then he took it as like…
Then people ran with that. "Vards chat shit get banged," but--
I've no idea why I wrote it.
I think it was from, like, 2012 or something.
So I've literally not got a Scooby-Doo. But it sounds good.
Chat shit get banged
Banged Chat shit get banged
It just became an instant slogan, and the fans embraced it.
Banged
Internet memes and songs people recorded.
And you did see T-shirts and tattoos. There was all sorts.
…get banged Line 'em up, line 'em up
Jamie Vardy was becoming a cult figure,
and, uh, it just summed him up.
Talk nonsense to me, you're gonna get something.
I think it was a message to defenders in the Premier League.
-They get what? -Banged.
Chat shit, chat shit get--
-Banged. -Banged.
Whoo.
Going into the new season, we were confident we knew how to win games.
Whoo-hoo.
Floating on the moon
We've still got this momentum from the year before.
Can we carry that on?
There are various media
reporting that Nigel Pearson has been, quote, "sacked"
as the manager of Leicester City. Unconfirmed reports at the moment.
The reason it comes as such a shock
is that Pearson had done such a fantastic job
in rescuing Leicester and keeping them in the Premier League.
He managed to achieve the greatest escapes that we've seen in Premier League history.
I was utterly shocked, knowing what he'd done for myself,
taking me there and backing me and believing in me.
I was… Probably say I was devastated.
He's the man who steered Leicester City
clear of relegation from the Premier League.
One month later, he's been sacked by the club.
It was difficult leaving, yeah, under the circumstances as well, but…
It was not an easy period to come through, in all honesty. It was a tough time.
It was a shock to everyone, and I think it's like with anything.
When there's a big change like that, there's the unknown.
There was an expectation after the great escape
that they could build on that.
But then when Nigel Pearson left, there was a lot of doubt,
and the big question then was "Who's next?"
Leicester City's search for a new manager is over,
as they've announced the appointment of Claudio Ranieri.
-Really? -Claudio Ranieri.
-Claudio Ranieri? -Claudio Ranieri.
-What the fuck? -This is a bit of a shock.
I think people thought they'd seen the last of Claudio Ranieri.
It's a strange appointment. I think they've taken a massive risk.
For me, it's very… it's very good and very exciting
to start the new, uh, season.
He has a CV blessed with 14 different teams he's managed.
Most recently Greece where he only took charge for, I think, four games.
They lost to the Faroe Islands. He was subsequently sacked.
They were different personalities.
Nigel's approach was to foster this team spirit,
whereas Claudio was a man that used to chop and change a lot.
"The Tinkerman," as he was known.
It just felt like this could be a recipe for disaster.
There was not a lot I knew, if I'm honest. Just knew he'd been at Chelsea. That's it.
We didn't know what to expect.
It was gonna be a lot different to the regime that we was currently in.
-I want to don't change too much. -Yeah.
But just to give my… the Italian tactical way.
Coming into the '15-'16 season, we didn't have a particularly big squad.
We didn't have any marquee signings.
It was a… a band of brothers, really, assembled on a shoe-string budget.
Everything seemed to be stacked against them that season.
The odds of Leicester City winning the Premier League title was 5,000 to 1.
It means for every pound, you can get £5,000 back.
It was the longest odds ever in the history of the Premier League
on a team winning the title.
Famously, you could've got shorter odds on finding Elvis Presley alive.
You were literally betting on the impossible.
A team like Leicester's not gonna win the Premier League.
How do you say impossible? Why is it impossible?
It's not gonna happen. It's not imp-- It's not gonna happen.
I think in us heads deep down the main target was to avoid relegation.
But I love being an underdog.
At the end of the day, it's 11 versus 11.
It doesn't matter what team it is, anything can happen.
Anything can happen in football.
After 11 years away from English football, he's back.
Former Tinkerman of Chelsea now in charge of Leicester City.
The first game of a season is always very unknown.
You don't know where you are in terms of fitness levels
and where you are compared to other teams.
But we got off to a great start.
Albrighton has delivered. Knocked on by Huth.
It's found a way in! Jamie Vardy!
Leicester lead!
Carrying on from where they left off last season.
I remember it being a bit of a muted celebration.
Was it because he'd been with England and he's now used to scoring goals,
or was it something which was going on in the background?
A few weeks before that game,
I was just out with my wife, teammates there, their partners,
playing poker in the casino.
There was a guy walking around, looking at people's cards,
and going and telling another guy on the table virtually what we had.
It literally just kicks off.
F*** off.
Shot glasses go flying everywhere.
Cards go everywhere, and Jamie…
Just the Sheffield lad came out in full force that night
and said a few things that he shouldn't have said.
I remember being sat in bed one night, and we get a phone call saying
the security cameras had been provided to the media.
They're running a racism story.
Shit, like, what's… What have I done here?
Jap.
Walk on…
Used a term that I didn't think was offensive.
Thought it was just an abbreviation of Japan.
And it got me in a bit of trouble.
You're like "racist," what? Like, no, that's not me.
-He were gutted about it, to be fair. -Yeah.
-'Cause it's not him. -No.
-He's not like that at all. -No, he's nothing like that.
We shared a dressing room every day.
We're on the pitch fighting for each other, you know, every weekend.
In terms of being labeled a racist, you know, never in a million years.
He didn't say those words because he was being racist.
He said those words because he's uneducated.
It was a kind of throwaway comment for him,
but he openly admitted to us straightaway that he'd done it,
and, uh, I think the club took action to try and redress that.
They could terminate my contract or massive fines, even sold.
So to be in that situation was horrific.
Leicester City has confirmed Jamie Vardy has been fined
and will receive diversity awareness training.
And it definitely helped me. It's not something you get taught.
Like especially in…
In school, growing up and stuff, you get taught what a racist is,
what terms are not to be used.
And, you know… 100% should never be used.
So I think that was a massive, massive learning curve for myself.
After that moment, it was go training, go home.
Don't even bother putting yourself
in a situation where anything stupid or anything bad could happen.
We realized, like, we were not normal people anymore.
As much as we tried to pretend and, you know, live our lives normally,
we just couldn't do it anymore.
That event definitely showed how everything had changed.
Someone's messaged you.
Everything.
See you later.
The club had to move on very quickly from that.
Although, it was definitely a feeling that he'd have to win some people back over.
But people didn't expect what was gonna happen next.
That one hammered home by Jamie Vardy.
Here's Vardy. Jamie Vardy!
He was unbelievable. He went on this goal-scoring run.
Vardy is breaking through. Astonishing.
He just couldn't stop scoring.
Vardy!
His scoring spree continues.
That's five in a row from Vardy.
The way he was playing, you couldn't stop him.
And it drove the team forward.
Then it was like,
let's see how many points we can get and how high we finish on the table.
Takes over, Vardy. He's in here!
He scored again! He's on fire!
The first time I realized I was on the consecutive goal-scoring run
was when we played Crystal Palace at home.
He's done it yet again. Seven games running.
But up until then, I'd not a clue.
Here he is, Jamie Vardy. In the clear to score again.
The goals just keep on coming for Jamie Vardy.
The record for scoring in consecutive games in the Premier League
was Ruud van Nistelrooy. And he scored in ten consecutive games.
Surrounded by white shirts and still going.
What a run by Ruud van Nistelrooy. What a goal.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was royalty in football.
Scored at some of the biggest clubs in the world.
Then you've got Jamie Vardy coming from the backstreets of Sheffield.
There was no chance that he was gonna break that record.
Is this the moment for Jamie Vardy?
This is the moment!
His remarkable run continues.
He scores for the ninth match running in the Premier League.
Getting to number nine, and I was one… one away from matching the record.
Much of the build-up, of course, has centered on this man.
Jamie Vardy goes for the record.
Ten successive Barclays Premier League games.
Everyone's talking in the dressing room, like,
"This is the equal-record game." It's in the back of everyone's mind.
The previous record set by van Nistelrooy
was actually done against Newcastle as well.
So it was all along the same lines.
Here's Vardy.
Games that are as tight as this, he's often the one to separate them.
This is Jamie Vardy!
History maker.
Ten out of ten.
And the fairy tale goes on. Jamie Vardy is living the dream.
All the headlines will be about Jamie Vardy
who scored in ten consecutive Premier League games.
But what about this Leicester City side as well,
unbeaten in ten away Premier League games?
Oh, ain't going anywhere. I don't think they're going anywhere.
It's hard to explain.
Obviously, cheers, boys. Wouldn't have been able to do it without all of you.
But, um, the gaffer's just said he's gonna put some beers on the coach and the plane.
Yeah!
He's equalled the record, everyone's buzzing.
But can you break the record?
If it didn't have a fairy-tale feel about it enough,
the fact that it was Manchester United, Ruud van Nistelrooy's team,
that Jamie Vardy could score his eleventh against,
that just made it even sweeter.
The toss is up, the stage is set, the lights are on.
These are the days of our lives, ladies and gentlemen.
It does not get better than this.
Everything surrounding the game was… Just felt huge. It felt massive.
Everybody was just rooting for him to go and get it.
But nobody really spoke about it.
It was almost like we didn't wanna interrupt what he's doing
and put too much pressure on one game.
But, to be honest, he didn't look like he was feeling any pressure.
I remember the night before the Man United game, I called him
and just said, "Look, if you don't break the record, it's okay."
"You've got to ten. It's an incredible achievement."
He was just deadpan straight back.
"Don't worry about tomorrow. I'm getting one."
Everybody was desperate to try and make that pass for that goal.
Just look for him.
You almost sacrifice a goal to make sure he scores.
It was an evening game under the lights.
Everybody was rooting for Vardy to score that night.
He's in.
And Christian Fuchs clips that pass straight into his path.
Fuchs.
What were you thinking when Fuchs passed you the ball
and you took the shot?
Don't miss.
Vardy!
It's 11. It's heaven for Jamie Vardy.
Hold the back page. Hold the front page.
A Leicester player has smashed the record.
When I scored, the emotions were through the roof.
Mine, fucking mine.
I just… I get in the moment.
We won't all get to break records,
but seeing one of our close friends and our teammates be able to do it,
is huge, and we were just so happy for him.
We felt like we'd scored it.
And the cheer was the loudest I'd ever heard in the stadium.
During the run, everyone was fully behind me.
It made me wanna do it, but… for them.
He sent me a message from the dressing room saying, "Well, that ended well."
Ruud sent me a Tweet at the time.
It was officially my record at that moment in time.
Yeah, it's pretty good. Pretty good.
And after the run that he went on,
we found ourselves near the top of the table.
It was amazing.
My wife said to me, "You know, you could win the Premier League."
I just gave her a look and said, "Don't be ridiculous."
We had our Christmas do just after,
so we went to jump on a flight.
And then just as I landed, got a phone call off my wife
saying, "Your agent's trying to get hold of you. You need to ring him."
So I rang him up and he was like, um,
"Just letting you know, there's a story coming out in the papers tomorrow."
So I'm like, "Well, about what? I've not done anything wrong."
And he's like,
"No, they've, um… They've found your real dad."
And I was like, "What?"
I'd had a call from the MailOnline and they said,
"We've had Jamie's father at his game today."
And I'm thinking, "His father?" Well…
…his father wasn't at the game.
And they went, "Oh no. His biological father was at the game."
I was like, "Mm. Right, okay."
I didn't know if he knew.
So I rung his mum first, and she's crying her eyes out saying,
"You have to stop this. You have to stop this. This isn't fair."
He's like, "Yeah, they've been and done loads of research,
and they've found your real dad, tracked him down,
paid for him to get to Swansea,
paid for him to have his ticket, so that they could get pictures of him
in Swansea Stadium,
and then done a big, massive interview with him."
So the press, the photographers, paparazzi started turning up in Copenhagen
to get pictures of Jamie.
I'm thinking, "I need to get him home."
Yeah, I flew back home just to get away from it all.
Trying to get my head around everything
and work out basically what the fuck was going on.
Did you have any idea that the dad that raised you
wasn't your biological father?
I had a slight inkling from when I was younger.
Used to get people saying, "We know your dad,"
but they were from completely different areas, so I was like…
And they'd go, "No, no, your real dad."
I just used to bat it off, if I'm honest. Like, didn't wanna know.
But then, obviously, this came out and it was like… "Fuck."
I don't understand why that was in the public's interest…
…to traumatize someone.
It was just cruel. It was cruel.
You break a goal-scoring record one day, everything's amazing,
and the next day, the media are looking to knock you down
and derail all the great stuff you've done.
And it was… it was a tough time.
I was then getting letters sent to the club
from my so-called dad's family,
who were saying, "If you do wanna speak, I'm…"
"I'm basically your auntie."
No. Not, uh… Not for me.
-Has he tried reaching out? -Not tried reaching out.
Not tried doing anything.
Probably got a bit of cash for doing that paper, and he was happy, so…
leave him to it.
I was proper pissed off because I just thought,
how can anyone allow their child to go through life thinking one thing
without ever solidly confirming that that thing isn't actually correct?
It's just unforgivable.
Yeah, it was… it was tough hearing it all.
Probably one of the hard… harder things I've had to get through.
I think I did have a pop at my mum.
I thought I should've been told if it was true.
I've still-- I've still not heard it from them now.
They've still not seen the kids.
So I made the decision I was done with it.
I've got my wife, got my children.
-Was it good? -Yeah.
We're here, we're happy.
-Hey. -Yeah?
Saw your volley.
And that… that's all that matters.
That legitimately is all that matters to me.
Making sure they're happy.
After the news broke, he had a game coming up.
And I thought he is not in the right frame of mind.
And I was worried that the built-up resentment and anger
was gonna manifest in a really bad way.
Could this derail him, derail Leicester's season?
I was worried.
Mahrez! Vardy!
But it didn't.
He managed to switch off everything, like it was not even going on.
Where does he bury hurt?
You know, where does he bury being sad? I don't know where he puts it.
He's had trauma, and he crosses the white line,
and he performs.
Maybe that's the therapy.
It's like I step over the white line and it's like right,
focus in, win, play well, score.
I think that's how I've dealt with it all.
His confidence and the way that he played was infectious.
He was the one that was setting the tone, and…
everyone had to follow that.
Ricochet here has come the way of Vardy.
Okazaki. They're in again.
They scored again!
Leicester are flying.
This is Vardy who's in. And around Butland!
When they hit the summit of the Premier League
and you saw that on your screen, it looked like a typo.
I think we can do it. It's destined for Leicester.
We're top of the league!
You're pinching yourself thinking, "Should this be happening?"
"Is this really happening?"
All nationalities and faiths have caught the football bug.
And their success has created local, adventurous entrepreneurs.
At one takeaway, you can get a Mighty Mahrez,
or the Vardy Burger,
and a Vardy coffee to go with it.
We could never prepare, we could never plan
for how this had panned out this year.
Um, I think everyone's just enjoying it for what it is.
We were just enjoying ourselves,
just playing football with smiles on our faces.
And that's why the results were coming. But the pundits were saying,
"Oh, they'll lose to Liverpool, then it's over."
They had three fixtures which looked particularly challenging.
Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal.
If you lose three games at that stage, you're gonna fall away.
It would really mean the end of your title dream.
And everybody thought that Leicester would fail this test.
Riyad Mahrez. Over the top. Will he find Vardy? Yes, he will.
Vardy volley!
Oh yes! The goal of the season!
Jamie Vardy, what a finish!
It was like, "Go fuck yourself. Bang, there you go. 1-0, see you later."
I've seen some goals. I'm not sure I've ever seen a better goal this season.
This is one of the best goals I've ever seen.
Leicester continue to write this hugely unlikely tale
to defy expectations.
Beating Liverpool at home was one thing,
but to win a title, you've gotta go to the toughest places in the country
and get a result.
And at that point, going to Manchester City
was the biggest test they would face that season.
Manchester City are one of the richest clubs in the world.
They're buying up the best players.
They're building a super team, and they're dominating English football.
And here's Leicester rocking up at Manchester City
with a squad that's nearly a tenth of the cost of the Manchester City squad.
It looked ominous, and it looked like one that might be beyond them.
If Leicester, in the next three years, spend 500 million quid,
they'll have a chance of winning. Until that point, no.
-But this is their best chance. -They're not gonna win.
No, but this is their best chance.
Not in three years' time. It's now, isn't it?
Everyone was going Man City are gonna beat Leicester, go back to the top,
Leicester will fall down, and Man City will run away with the league.
Leicester were 5,000-to-1 outsiders
to win the title at the start of the campaign.
Already a remarkable story.
Who will have the happy ending
in the final chapter of this tale of two cities?
There was no fear. Everything was so relaxed.
Bless you.
Lifted in beyond Okazaki and squeezed home!
Robert Huth has scored for Leicester City inside two and a half minutes.
Riyad Mahrez!
2-0 Leicester.
Huth with the header. It's three. Sensational.
They're not just beating the richest club in the land,
they're ripping them up on their own patch.
The one thing that we had over a lot of teams
was just that togetherness.
We had a group of lads that would just do anything for each other.
After the Man City game, the odds on Leicester City becoming champions
started to shift in their favor for the first time.
They can do it. We can win the league.
I thought something special is happening.
We could achieve the impossible, but pressures started to creep up on us.
We may never, ever be in this position again.
We can't let this slip now.
We've got ourselves this far. We have to take this opportunity.
We have to, like, snatch it with both hands.
Leicester, having won at Manchester City,
were winning at Arsenal.
Then they lost a man. Now they've lost a goal.
Arsenal, with an extra man, need this.
Özil clips it in. Welbeck!
There's your fairy tale.
You could weep for Leicester. You could weep for them.
But Arsenal have squeezed it all up in the very last seconds.
Everyone was probably like… "Right, that could be it."
"Their balloon's burst. It's done."
But the Leicester crowd are like we've just won the game 3-0.
So, out of their seats, standing ovation. Still going mad like we've won.
Our fans were unbelievable.
The one thing they love is seeing, whatever the result, you give your all.
And that's what we did. We gave it everything.
We're thinking, "We're top of the table."
"If we get this amount of points from that,
we can actually win the league."
When you sense that the fans have got that belief, and the players have got it,
that's when something, like, underneath just starts bubbling up.
Everyone was all of a sudden,
at that moment in time, turning into a Leicester fan.
People who didn't know about football knew about Leicester
because it became a worldwide story.
Everyone wanted Leicester to do it.
Rather than it being corporate money taking over everything,
and just whoever has the most expensive squad wins,
it was almost like you know what, passion and love for the game can still win.
And I think that's what a lot of people bought into it with.
If Leicester do win, it'll be the first time in 12 years
that the Premier League hasn't been won by the big beasts,
Manchester United, Manchester City, or Chelsea.
If it's someone like us, it gives people a dream
that things can actually happen to them.
We know you won't believe us We know you won't believe us
We're gonna win the league
Something as a fan you never dreamed of. You watch other clubs do it.
It's never gonna be your turn to win the Premier League.
And suddenly it is. It just could be.
Not just outside the stadium, but inside as well.
They feel that they are within touching distance.
You're so close to it, and then things changed.
Vardy.
Um, had a ball put through…
…and tangle of legs.
Soon as I was on the ground, I heard the whistle.
I automatically thought that he'd given a penalty.
And then he started waddling in and pointed the other way.
Gave a free kick to them and… and booked me for diving.
Striker, Jamie Vardy, controversially is sent off.
The red mist kicked in, and…
yeah, I called him a cunt.
The news started coming out, Vardy's gonna miss the next two games.
How are Leicester gonna cope? That's taking their main man out the team.
'Cause of my reaction to the ref,
I was gonna miss Swansea at home and Man U away.
After that, I thought it's done. This is what everyone's waiting for.
Timing was horrific. Like, horrific.
Four games left, and it was still really close.
Tottenham were right behind us.
Harry Kane, Tottenham's main striker and captain,
posted on social media an image of some lions on the hunt,
suggesting "We're coming for you."
No one can replicate Vards,
but the signs of a good team
is can you cope when the unexpected happens?
The man they wish could play.
They're missing 22 goals worth of Jamie Vardy.
Today, he is a fan.
There was tension going into the Swansea City game.
They'd been denied their talisman striker.
I'll be honest, it was nerve-wracking. I hated it.
He probably felt he was letting us down, but we didn't see it like that.
The reason we were in the position was because of him.
Right now, it's on us to make sure we're in that position when you're back.
To Mahrez.
And Mahrez scores!
I was just buzzing watching the lads.
They did unbelievable.
Gray. And lashed in by Albrighton!
That shut everyone up.
You can say what you want, but we're not going anywhere.
With Vardy, without Vardy, we're a good side.
Leicester's momentum is unstoppable.
It begins to feel inevitable.
Going into the Man U game, if you win that,
then nothing could stop us from being crowned champions.
Leicester have been doubted throughout.
They've answered every awkward question thrown in their direction.
But it's not the easiest game to go into knowing you need a win,
especially at Old Trafford.
Confident start, this, by Manchester United.
It's Lingard.
They were all over us, first 15, 20 minutes.
You could almost feel like
they were like, "Who's this team, thinking they can win at our stadium?"
"Especially not Leicester. They're not doing it."
There's Martial!
There's a lot of wrestling going on. And Morgan nipped in.
The goal where I scored against Man United
was a special moment, running back towards the crowd and pointing at my mum.
The captain, Wes Morgan, runs to the Leicester fans.
Didn't get the win to be champions that day,
but it was another point in the right direction.
Even though Leicester got a point, it left a window of opportunity for Tottenham.
'Cause, mathematically, they could still become champions themselves.
The ultimate moment will be delayed for Leicester,
but the onus now on their rivals Spurs.
The very next day, Tottenham had to go to Chelsea and win
to keep the title race alive.
If Tottenham didn't get a result against Chelsea,
then we'll be crowned champions
'cause mathematically they couldn't catch us.
Danny Drinkwater!
Vards was like, "Guys, we're gonna watch the game at my house."
Danny, Danny Drinkwater!
He calls me.
He goes, "All the lads are coming back to watch the Chelsea game."
And I was like, "What, everyone?"
Yeah, thought it'd be a great idea.
Word had already clearly started to get around
because fans start turning up at our house,
standing outside of the gate.
Add I was like, "Whoa, they-- Leicester have not done it yet."
It is a night when Leicester's like a child on Christmas Eve,
flirts with the butterflies,
and thrills at the proximity of glorious utopia.
We needed a draw or Chelsea to win.
And then no one can catch us if that happened.
But if Tottenham beat Chelsea,
they'd catch up two points on us.
And you go to the following week. It starts getting a bit edgy.
This has never happened in world sport.
A 5,000-to-1 shot has never won a title, a race, or an encounter.
Leicester City Football Club are on the verge
of rewriting local, national, and international history books.
Everyone's like, "Yeah, pass me a beer. I… I need one."
"I'm too nervous. I can't get through it otherwise."
Kane!
Scores!
And Tottenham are alive! They're still--
Right, it's fine. There's still time.
-Oh no. -No!
Son scores. 2-0 Tottenham on the cusp of halftime.
Everyone's just sat there, like, silence.
Okay, it's not gonna happen tonight.
But then second half starts, and Chelsea got one back.
Lashes Chelsea back into it.
I think the whole country, apart from Tottenham fans,
wanted us to win the league.
Chelsea wanted to stop Tottenham winning the league,
and obviously do it for Claudio as well.
And then Eden Hazard…
…came up with something spectacular.
Diego Costa. Eden Hazard!
Glorious goal.
Leicester's goal.
We all went crazy. Started jumping on each other.
But the game's not over.
Brace yourself, Leicester. Brace yourself.
It's happening.
It is about to happen.
-Blow it! -Blow it.
Ooh.
The full-time whistle has gone at Stamford Bridge.
Leicester City are the Premier League champions.
Seeing that full-time whistle go, I was just buzzing. Absolutely buzzing.
We was all laughing at each other, going, "What? We've won the league."
"Like, this is incredible."
Champions! Champions! Olé! Olé! Olé!
The emotions just erupt out of you, and you just can't believe it's happened.
It was just the best feeling. Best feeling.
Leicester are the English Premier League champions. Can you believe it?
Outside their stadium, Leicester fans partied long into the night
to celebrate one of football's most remarkable feats.
Yeah, we've done it!
Olé, champions! Olé! Olé…
There's no doubt that is the greatest achievement,
I think, in the history of our game.
What Leicester have done…
…is give inspiration
to every manager, player, supporter that one day, that could be them.
It's amazing. We're never gonna do this again.
This is unique.
A modern-day football miracle.
They have blown their rivals away.
They have blown us all away, in truth.
Premier League Champions 2016,
the amazing Leicester City.
It was unbelievable.
That moment there, I think, is every footballer's dream.
It wasn't a fluke for Vards.
He went on to achieve Golden Boot, FA Cup, Community Shield,
Team of the Seasons.
Coming from his beginnings,
how late he got into the game,
I don't think there's anyone out there that's ever accomplished that much,
considering the circumstances.
I walk in here, it's just achievements.
But personally, it's definitely the keeping grounded,
don't let yourself get carried away.
Like, if things had been different, there'd have been none of this here, so…
I would love Jamie to be able to just be a bit more reflective
on how incredible of a career
that he has and that he continues to have.
But he's so dismissive of what he's achieved.
I'll think about all that when I'm retired, when I'm done.
All the stuff like that
is gonna be something that'll get thought about quite a lot
once I do eventually hang my boots up.
When do you think you'll retire?
Fucking hell, that's the big million-dollar question. Um…
I don't know.
I'm a firm believer of your legs will tell you when it's time.
I've still got that hunger, I've still got that drive.
Leicester, right back from day one, they gave me the shot.
And I think I've repaid them the whole way.
We have got some huge breaking news. Jamie Vardy is gonna leave Leicester City
at the end of the season after 13 years at the club.
It's finally time to call it a day.
I think the timing is right.
Just wanna sincerely thank you all.
Leicester will always, always have a massive place in my heart.
This is my goodbye, but you will see me again soon, I promise.
When will you know which club you're going to?
Um…
-I'll know… -Yeah?
…when you stop asking.
Not gonna not tell you.
I'm dreading this one.
It's actually nice.
It's what? Oh, is this one a nice one?
Yeah?
Well, that's not very nice, is it? What do you want to put me in the bin for?
Only if you score a goal.
Cheers, Mins.
Did Daddy a nice card? Did you?
Till it said you better score or you're going in the bin.
Oh no. Did you actually?
Yeah.
-Ready? Yeah? -Yeah.
One last time?
Yeah.
Love you.
Today's Jamie Vardy's last game for Leicester.
His 500th appearance and targeting a 200th goal for the club.
Brilliant run here. James Justin. Jamie Vardy!
A 200th goal for the club.
There was just no way this wouldn't be his day.
Leicester's number nine, Jamie Vardy!
Thank you for taking myself and my family in as one of your own.
And I hope I've repaid everything for you.
What odds would you give Jamie Vardy to do what he did?
I say a million to one, but I don't think it's a million to--
It could be a billion to one, could be ten billion to one.
That is, in my humble opinion, the biggest sporting underdog story of all time,
to come from where he's come from, to achieve what he's achieved,
with everything that he's had to deal with.
I couldn't tell you how I did it, how it happened, why it happened.
But it's… It is crazy.
But I know full well that working hard…
…never giving up, and having the right people supporting you…
to come home, you got a family that loves you,
wants you to be the best that you can be,
you become what you believe.
I'm definitely proof of that. you can be,