Jamie Vardy: Leicester City Premier League title winner will leave a legacy

“He is obviously the greatest ever Leicester player,” former team-mate Marc Albrighton told BBC Sport.

“Everything he’s achieved individually and with the team will never be forgotten by the Leicester fans and the club. It’s going to be be tough for everyone because people have grown up watching him. It will take some getting used to not having him around the club.”

Vardy has scored 198 times in 496 appearances for the Foxes since his £1m move from Fleetwood in 2012, showing the quality that led to appearances at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.

Even before their memorable and miraculous title achievement, though, he helped Leicester to their ‘Great Escape’ in the 2014-15 campaign where they won seven of their last nine games to avoid relegation under Nigel Pearson.

Vardy scored goals in the Champions League and Europa League, and won the Premier League’s Golden Boot in 2019-20 after scoring 23 times – the oldest to win the prize at the age of 33.

He also beat current Foxes boss Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in consecutive Premier League games when he netted in his 11th straight match against Manchester United in 2015.

Vardy was Leicester’s leading light and the influential figure they turned to, and could rely on, in times of need.

After relegation in 2023, he scored 20 times in all competitions last season as they won the Championship and, amid Leicester’s troubles in this campaign, he is their top scorer with eight goals.

It’s no surprise he was on target when they last scored at home in the league on 8 December against Brighton. They have since failed to do so in nine successive matches at the King Power, setting an unwanted top-flight record and a major reason why they are second bottom in the table and 18 points adrift of safety.

Winger Albrighton played with Vardy for 10 years after he moved to Leicester from Aston Villa on a free transfer in 2014, and they formed a tight bond on and off the pitch.

There is a view of Vardy, especially from opposition fans, as a wind-up merchant who takes delight in responding to abuse and gestures aplenty.

A central figure in the dressing room too, players also have a pre-conceived opinion of him.

But that changes once they meet him as Albrighton, 35, revealed: “He’s a very unique character, very unique. There’s nobody who came into the dressing room that was anything like him. I had a great relationship with him so he’s always been fantastic with me.

“The way he is with everybody in the dressing room was incredible. New signings would come in with a perception of him and they’d quickly find out the true character behind his personality.

“He is a down-to-earth person, very, very humble, just normal. People make out he is some sort of a superstar, but he’s just normal.

“He likes the normal things, the simple things in life, he’s a family man and is just an all-round good person, he’ll do anything for you.”