Jamie Vardy hopes late start to professional football will extend playing career

Jamie Vardy hopes his late start to professional football will allow him to extend his playing career at the highest level.

The Leicester forward, who has risen from the non-league game to become a Premier League winner, was 25 years old when he made his Football League debut.

Pace is one of his key attributes but Vardy, who turns 30 in January, insists he's not losing his speed as the big birthday approaches.

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"My legs feel great and people say the older you get your pace goes, but it's not affecting that side of things as of yet," Vardy told Soccer Saturday. 

"Hopefully because I came into the game later, it means I've got longer to go."

Leicester travel to Watford in the Premier League on Saturday, three years on from their dramatic Championship play-off semi-final defeat at Vicarage Road.

Vardy was on the bench for the Foxes that day, alongside future England team-mates Danny Drinkwater and Harry Kane, on loan at the King Power from Tottenham.

All three have since gone on to play Champions League football, with one particular picture from that game serving as a reminder of how far each player has come.

"It just shows that anything is possible," Vardy said of the image. "I know full well from Drinks [Drinkwater] and H [Kane] that a lot of hard work has been put into it from every single one of us.

"It's not like it has just come to us overnight, we have had to put the graft in. We've had a few chats about it, especially when seeing H on England duty. To be fair, we have a laugh about it.

"I always pinch myself. It's not just what has happened over the last year, it is what has happened through my whole career and where I've got to. It's good to keep me grounded.

"It's good when you do get noticed, it means you are doing well so I think I just need to keep that going and if I can go on another run now and get anywhere near to the [Premier League goalscoring] record, that would be great."

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Vardy and Leicester have struggled to live up to last season's remarkable title triumph, with the Foxes 14th in the table and Vardy stuck on two league goals.

It's been a different story in the Champions League, where Claudio Ranieri's side are on the cusp of clinching qualification to the knock-out round.

Asked if Leicester have approached the two competitions differently, Vardy said: "I can't put anything on to that, all I know is that in the Champions League we have been playing exactly as we know we can and for some reason it's not been there in the league.

"It's just time to make sure we are constantly doing it and putting the performances in.

"I know they [Champions League team] won't have scouted us as much as our league opponents so it could be down to that."

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And the Leicester striker says his side are not in the Champions League just to make up the numbers, insisting they believe they have what it takes to go all the way.

"You can't just enter a competition and think you've got no chance," he added. "You will just lose every game.

"As the performances have shown in the first four games, we are there to put performances in and get the points, and that is what we have been doing."

Watch the full interview with Jamie Vardy on Soccer Saturday, from 12pm on Sky Sports News HQ

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