England's Jamie Vardy has retired from international football | OneFootball

Leicester striker Jamie Vardy has announced his retirement from international football.

Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “To be honest with you, this has been on my mind for a while. I’m not getting any younger and you can see, to be fair to the gaffer, he wants to make it more youthful, which obviously had its benefits during the World Cup – we got to the semi-finals and finished fourth, which is equal to the furthest we have ever been on foreign soil.

“So I just said to Gareth that I think it’s probably best from now on, especially with the way he wants to go, to bring youngsters in who he thinks have got the ability and start nurturing them into international football.”

Vardy made his debut in 2o15 against the Republic of Ireland, coming on as a replacement fo Wayne Rooney and scored his first international goal the following year in a 3-2 win over Germany.

He was part of the England squad that was knocked out of Euro 2016 by Iceland and the 2018 World Cup squad that saw their tournament end at the hands of Croatia.

“I explained it all to Gareth and he was fine with my decision,” said Vardy. “I mentioned it to him after the World Cup had finished, out in Russia, and then I spoke to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago.

“He let it die down a bit, so that I could have a bit more time to think, and then rang me up just to make sure I wasn’t just taking the mickey in Russia. But I hadn’t changed my mind.”

In total, Vardy earned 26 caps and scored seven goals.