Leicester City: The perfect like-for-like Jamie Vardy replacement is Danish striker | OneFootball

Jamie Vardy's contract is running down at Leicester City and the club legend will be hoping to fire the club back to the Premier League as the first time of asking in a grand finale - but his replacement is already out there and waiting.

Vardy joined Leicester from Fleetwood Town in the summer of 2012 to become the first million-pound non-league footballer in English history - and despite a slow start in the Midlands, his goals took Leicester up in 2013/14 before he achieving biblical stardom at the King Power Stadium by winning the Premier League in 2015/16.

Still scoring goals in the Championship, he's continuing to roll on and has helped Leicester to the top of the league by hitting double figures in the league already. But with the future to plan for, there could be a ready-made replacement for Vardy - in Kasper Dolberg.

Despite the fact that Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka and Tom Cannon are also offering Vardy competition at Leicester at present, the Foxes would likely need four striking options at the King Power Stadium next season should they be promoted to the top-flight. Vardy's age, and relative club wage having become a high-earner in the east Midlands throughout his spectacular spell with the Foxes, means that he could well leave in the summer - and Dolberg could be earmarked as his ideal replacement.

According to Fbref, Vardy ranks in the top 95th percentile of attackers for non-penalty goals with 0.60, the top 97th percentile for pass completion rate in his position with 79.1 per cent and the 77th percentile for clearances - though he does lack in aerial duels won and blocks.

Dolberg is all but the same. Ranking in the top 84th percentile for non-penalty goals in the Belgian Pro League by boasting 0,50, the top 83rd percentile of pass completion rates with 74.5 per cent and also displaying much more proficiency in terms of clearances than other metrics when defending from the front, he’s all but a like-for-like swap for Vardy,

There is also the fact that you must compare the different levels of competition, and so Dolberg would generally rank higher in a league where he wasn’t facing the likes of Igor Thiago - set to move to Brentford in the summer for a club-record fee - and more.

Jamie Vardy transfer news latest

Vardy will certainly be a Leicester legend forever, regardless of where he ends up. That could be this summer where he finally departs the King Power Stadium perhaps as Leicester's greatest ever player - with almost 200 goals for the club, 136 of those coming in the Premier League, four strikes in Europe - and of course, that magical first top-flight trophy the the club had craved for so long.

He’s 37 and with other, younger options at the club, it’s thought that Vardy will leave. But he has zero plans to rip up his contract and start afresh, according to Leicester Live.

Vardy said: "Thirty-seven is just a number. You’re as young as you feel. I look after myself, keep myself fit, so I’ll keep going for as long as possible. Football’s a demanding game, it has to be like that, and you just make sure you recover right and get ready for the next game.

"If you look at the world and how technology has moved forward, there’s different things you can do for recovery now. I’ve been lucky enough to put that into my house, so any extra recovery I can get it done at home when we’re not at the training ground gives me a little benefit. So as long as I keep doing that, I'll keep feeling fresh."