Cardiff City's £1m Jamie Vardy transfer fiasco will continue to haunt them for a long time: View | OneFootball

Cardiff City will rue not bringing in 2012 target Jamie Vardy given the striker's achievements with Leicester City over the last decade.

The Jamie Vardy story is a well-known one. Released by Sheffield Wednesday as a youngster, Vardy dropped into non-league with Stocksbridge Park Steels, Halifax Town and Fleetwood Town respectively, before moving to Championship side Leicester City for around £1m in 2012. The rest, as they say, is history, but his progress must have been gut-wrenching to see for fans of Cardiff City, who were interested in the striker themselves 12 years ago.

Vardy, now 37-years-old, is one of football's fairytale stories, going from the bottom to the top of the pyramid in a goal-laden career that has seen him become a title winner, play Champions League football, and earn 26 senior caps for England, scoring against Wales at Euro 2016.

Upon his departure from Hillsborough as a 19-year-old, the pacy striker joined local non-league side Stocksbridge, where his prolific eye for goal drew interest from Halifax Town in 2010.

Quickly progressing back up the divisions, Vardy signed for Conference Premier (fifth-tier) club Fleetwood Town the following summer, and took to the higher level exceptionally well, scoring 34 goals in 40 appearances for a Cod Army side that would ultimately lift the title and secure a place in the EFL for the first time.

This, of course, saw plenty of interest in the player from many Football League clubs all the way up to second-tier level, with Cardiff City being one of them.

Bluebirds had £1m Vardy bid accepted by Fleetwood in 2012

While the tenacious striker has gone on to reach incredible highs with the Foxes, it could have been a different path Vardy took, had events in the summer of 2012 taken an alternative turn.

Wales Online have since reported that Cardiff, fresh from a Championship play-off defeat against West Ham, had a £1m bid for the attacker accepted by Fleetwood, but so did divisional rivals Leicester City.

The striker may have been put off by the circus surrounding the Bluebirds' new ownership at the time, but Vardy reportedly told the BBC that it was the fact that he felt Foxes manager Nigel Pearson "really wanted him" that persuaded him to move to the Midlands rather than South Wales.

It would have been a real blow to City boss Malky Mackay at the time, and will have grown into a huge frustration for all associated with Cardiff ever since, as the striker took the Premier League by storm.

Leicester decision proved an inspired one for the striker

While Cardiff fans may continue to look back at what might have been, there's no denying Vardy's decision to join Leicester over the Bluebirds has been more than vindicated since.

Promoted to the top-flight with the Foxes in 2014, Vardy became an iconic figure, leading the line for a Leicester side that relied on his pace to hit sides on the counter with devastating effect, while his goals to games ratio remains impressive to this day.

The forward, along with the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Kasper Schmeichel and Wes Morgan, then booked his spot in footballing immortality as they, against all odds, won the Premier League title under Claudio Ranieri in 2016.

Vardy, now approaching 500 games for the club, and his teammates would have some memorable Champions League nights the following season, and in time, go on to lift the 2020/21 FA Cup after a 1-0 victory against Chelsea at Wembley.

There was the disappointment of relegation at the end of the 2022/23 season, but Vardy, now at the veteran stage of his career, earned an instant return to the Premier League under the stewardship of boss Enzo Maresca.

However, while Vardy and Leicester certainly won't look back with any regret whatsoever, supporters of Cardiff City will continue to have that lingering feeling of what could have been in the Welsh capital.