Football fans all over the world know the story of Jamie Vardy’s incredible rise from a Non-
League hopeful to a Premier League winner.

Whether you support Vardy’s first club, Stockbridge Park Steels, or one higher up the
football ladder like his current side Leicester, everyone has heard of his fairy-tale story.
Put simply, Jamie Vardy’s meteoric rise is one of the greatest stories to come out of Non-
League football.

England C manager Paul Fairclough recently spoke to us about his Non-League England side,and shed light on how close Vardy was to making an appearance for his team.

Now with 6 goals in nineteen appearances for the full England team, Vardy could have
pulled on an England shirt long before his 2015 debut.

Fairclough and his staff were well aware of the striker for many years, but when his call-up
came, injury saw him miss the fixtures he was due to be in the squad for.

And the implementation of age restrictions on England C players meant that when Vardy
was fit again, he was no longer eligible as he was over the age of 23.

We can’t help but wonder what difference an England C appearance might have made to
Vardy’s career. Could things have gone EVEN better for him than that miraculous Premier
League title win in the 2015/16 season?

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Perhaps one of the big boys might have snapped him up. But then, perhaps they might have spat him back out.

Click here to visit our 'In The Spotlight' page and hear Fairclough’s comments on Vardy’s brush with England C.

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