Jamie Vardy at 40: Still Chasing Defenders and New Chapters

Jamie Vardy has never done quiet exits. Not from non-league, not from the Premier League, and certainly not from Italy.

When his short spell at Cremonese ended with relegation and a summer release in 2026, the Premier League title winner suddenly found himself without a club. One season in Serie A, then gone. No grand farewell, no extended lap of honour. Just a free agent at 39, back on the market.

The speculation machine went into overdrive.

Leicester? The romantic option. A return to the club he dragged from the Championship to the most improbable Premier League title of the modern era, now marooned in League One after back-to-back relegations. The idea of Vardy pulling on a Foxes shirt again, trying to spark a broken club back into life, wrote itself.

But emotion did not dictate this decision. Vardy waited. He listened. He turned down the easy narrative.

The Hollywood route tempted plenty of imaginations too. Wrexham, the “Welcome to Wrexham” phenomenon, with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in the directors’ box and cameras everywhere. Many saw Vardy as the perfect fit for that circus: a working-class hero with a story made for streaming.

There was something in it, according to his former Leicester team-mate Danny Simpson. Speaking to GOAL, Simpson admitted: “I think there was something there. There were a few things that were there. I did speak to him.”

So the conversations happened. The idea was real. It just never became the move.

Burnley did.

From Hollywood Script to Turf Moor Reality

In the end, it was Burnley – with their own twist of American stardust in investor JJ Watt – who put a concrete offer on the table: a 12‑month deal, one more crack at the Championship. Not as a nostalgia act, but as a weapon.

Vardy chose Turf Moor over the Racecourse Ground. Instead of starring in a docuseries, he’ll be lining up against Reynolds and McElhenney’s Wrexham in the same division.

Simpson, though, had another club in mind entirely.

“You know what I wanted? I know it's happened now but I would have liked to have seen him go to Everton,” he said. “You need a striker, 20 minutes left in a game, coming on for [Thierno] Barry. Anyway, that didn't happen. That's just what I was thinking.”

It’s a glimpse into how Vardy is still viewed by those who know him best: not as a mascot, not as a sentimental signing, but as a difference-maker. A man you throw on with 20 minutes left because he still frightens defenders.

“He's still fit, he's still sharp, he's still going to get you goals,” Simpson added. “There's nothing on him, his weight and stuff. I hope he starts getting more games and getting goals because that's Jamie Vardy. He's always got another story, another chapter.”

Joining Football’s Forties Club

Vardy’s contract at Burnley carries him past a milestone that usually signals the end rather than a new beginning. On 11 January, he turns 40.

That birthday will place him in rare company. Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Gianluigi Buffon, Zlatan Ibrahimovic – a select group of elite players who kept performing at a high level after crossing that line. Vardy’s path has been very different to theirs, but the stubborn refusal to slow down feels familiar.

The fairytale label has followed him for more than a decade, from factory shifts and non-league grounds to the Premier League summit and England caps. Yet even now, as he dabbles in YouTube work and Bundesliga match streaming, there’s a sense he isn’t done on the pitch.

Asked if the story still has chapters left, Simpson didn’t hesitate. “I think he has got more in him.

“I think it'll come down to how he's managed with Tuesday and Saturday. I remember when he did that at Leicester, when he got them promoted. He scored 20-plus goals. He looks after himself but he needs managing right because it's tough to do that, especially in the Championship. It's up to how the manager manages him. As long as he's still hungry, which he is, he could do another year after.

“He’s also looking at the future and doing his own little bits, which is only right to do by the way. I hope he keeps going because there's only a few of us left from that [Leicester title-winning] team that are still playing.”

That line lands with weight. The 2015-16 Leicester miracle is already drifting into folklore. Most of that squad have stepped away. Vardy is one of the last men standing, still chasing lost causes, still stretching backlines.

Burnley’s Struggles, Vardy’s Standard

There is one constant with Vardy: effort. He has never been a player who coasts. Whether in a title race or a relegation scrap, he runs, he presses, he snarls. He commits.

Burnley need every bit of that edge right now.

His Clarets career has begun quietly on the surface – a single 25‑minute cameo from the bench – but the context is stark. Burnley have made a grim start, winless and anchored to the bottom of the Championship table. This is not the slick, swaggering side that romped out of the division previously. This is a group searching for a spark.

Wrexham, the club he nearly joined, are not exactly flying either. Seven points from seven games has dulled some of the early-season buzz. The Hollywood story has hit a patch of reality.

Both clubs now head into the international break with the same need: a reset, a jolt, a leader to drag them forward.

Burnley are betting that, even at 39 and counting, Jamie Vardy can still be that man. The legs may not be what they were, but the hunger? That’s the part of his game that has never aged.

The question now is simple: how many more times can he rip up the script?