Leicester City announce club legend Jamie Vardy set to leave at end of season
Jamie Vardy has confirmed he will leave Leicester City at the end of the 2024/25 season, bringing the curtain down on one of the most remarkable careers in Premier League history.
The 37-year-old, who famously rose from non-league obscurity to Premier League champion, announced his decision in an emotional video released by Leicester on Thursday afternoon.
His departure will mark the end of a 13-year spell at the club, during which he scored 181 goals in 460 appearances across all competitions and became a symbol of Leicester’s modern era.
Vardy joined Leicester from Fleetwood Town in 2012 for £1 million—a record fee for a non-league player at the time. He endured a difficult first season at Championship level but would go on to fire Leicester to promotion, survival, and ultimately the title.
“Every time I have stepped up a level, I wasn’t expecting it to happen, but once it did, I just made sure I worked as hard as I possibly could to stay there,” Vardy once said.
His defining moment came in the 2015/16 season, when he scored 24 league goals to help Claudio Ranieri’s 5000-1 outsiders clinch the Premier League title in the most improbable of triumphs.
That year, Vardy also set a Premier League record by scoring in 11 consecutive matches, a feat that still stands today.
He finished as the Premier League Golden Boot winner in 2019/20 with 23 goals, becoming the oldest player ever to claim the award. Vardy also scored 136 goals in the Premier League, placing him 14th on the all-time scorers list above the likes of Didier Drogba and Robin van Persie.
He was named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year in 2016 and earned 26 caps for England, scoring 7 goals before stepping away from international duty in 2018.
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A Leicester statement read: “Jamie will forever be a Leicester City legend. His story, from non-league to Premier League champion, is the stuff of football folklore—and a source of endless pride for everyone connected to the club.”
Vardy was far from a regular under Enzo Maresca as the Foxes secured a return to the Premier League last season, though he chipped in with several important goals as he played a crucial role on and off the pitch.
His transition to a role in the supporting cast at the King Power Stadium suggested that his City career was drawing to a natural conclusion for the 38-year-old striker, but it’s worth remembering the brilliance he brought to the league in his heyday.
Former Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has previously reflected on the unusual nature of Vardy’s career, praising him for the selfless work rate that allowed him to make it to the top of the professional game.
He said: “I think he’s a real icon of Leicester and of the league. His journey – coming into professional football at 25 and scoring his first Premier League goal at 27, to go on and score the goals he has and to have the impact he has had – he is such a unique player.”
“His work-rate is incredible and he never gives defenders a minute’s peace and chases down lost causes.
“He wants to score goals, but he also wants to create goals. He is a very selfless player. The work he puts in for the team, in his pressing but also his assist-making, his thought isn’t like some strikers who are purely there to score the goals and think of themselves.”
Jamie Vardy will leave Leicester as perhaps the club’s greatest-ever player – a record goalscorer, a Premier League champion, and the embodiment of their fairy-tale rise.
