🦁 Premier League Player of the Week - The never-ending story | OneFootball

Another matchday over, another OneFootball Premier League Player of the Week.

And the honour couldn’t go to anyone but …

Jamie Vardy – Leicester City

You might recall a few years ago there was some loose talk of a Jamie Vardy movie being in the works.

Presumably the film would have told the inspiring, feel-good story of Vardy being plucked from the obscurity of non-league football before going on to lift the Premier League title with Leicester in fairytale fashion.

But sadly (or perhaps thankfully) Jamie Vardy: The Movie never saw the light of day.

And it’s just as well really, because his story is far from over.

Even at the ripe old age of 33 he is still one of Europe’s deadliest strikers, as he showed once again in Leicester’s sensational 5-2 victory away at Manchester City on Sunday.

Vardy is the most dangerous player around when it comes to hanging off the shoulder of the last man and if you play with a high line against the Foxes, you’re asking for trouble.

Pep Guardiola took that risk in this game, and he would have paid the price much sooner had some of Leicester’s final balls been better on the counter-attack.

Vardy eventually did make his first big mark on the match when he ghosted past Kyle Walker and left the defender with little choice but to bring him down for a penalty. Up stepped the 2019/20 Golden Boot winner to fire past Ederson for his third goal of the new season.

Then in the second half came one of the most brilliant moments of Vardy’s career, when Timothy Castagne was played in down the right and his low cross into the box found the striker lurking.

In his post-match interview, Vardy described what he did next as a “Johan Dink”, and who are we to argue?

To put the icing on the cake, he soon completed his hat-trick with another penalty, taking his tally to five goals for the season already – the most in the Premier League.

He has now scored 108 goals in 214 Premier League matches. Not a bad haul for a player who didn’t make his debut in the top flight until he was 27.

He has also netted 21 penalties since his Premier League debut – more than any other player during that period – and he’s won 18 of those spot-kicks himself.

And what’s more, he has now scored nine times against Guardiola’s Manchester City – more than any other player since the Catalan’s arrival in England.

It’s a wonder nobody has ever made a serious effort to sign Vardy, but everybody else’s loss is Leicester’s gain.

It could be a while yet before the credits roll on his remarkable career.