Jamie Vardy rips Serie A to shreds: his ruthless analysis for England’s
Jamie Vardy is technically still registered with Cremonese, although he has informed the grigiorosso club of his intention to terminate his contract with the club. He will therefore bid farewell to Italy after 29 appearances and 7 goals in Serie A, but above all with a largely negative impression of Italian soccer. He said so himself without any turn of phrase in the podcast he decided to launch on the occasion of the start of the 2026 World Cup.
His analysis, offered during the first episode of ‘Jamie Vardy’s Having A Party,’ is merciless. “Italian soccer, compared to English soccer, is much slower,” explained the hero of the Leicester miracle team coached by Claudio Ranieri. “It is also much more defensive, and then the training is continuous. You run, you run, you run, then you show up for the game and literally there is nothing more you can give. When you’re 38 or 39, that’s not the best, is it? But it doesn’t just apply to me, it works that way for everybody. And then sports directors have the right to speak on any matter, something absurd.”
And yet Vardy’s Italian adventure had begun under the best auspices. The English striker had made his entrance into Italian soccer in the 2025-2026 season, making a major contribution to Cremonese’s surprising ride in the first weeks of the championship. The grigiorossi, newly promoted from Serie B, had stunned everyone by beating AC Milan 2-1 at San Siro and collecting five useful results in the first five days. Vardy had been one of the great protagonists of that golden period, so much so that he won the EA Sports FC Player Of The Month award in November, surpassing the likes of Maignan, Lautaro Martinez and Neres in the voting.
The individual recognition had matched the praise of Grigiorossi sporting director Simone Giacchetta, who in those months had not spared words of admiration for the English veteran. “Regardless of the number of goals he will score, his presence will not go unnoticed,” Giacchetta had told ‘Radio Sportiva.’ “The fact that a champion of his caliber chooses to come to us shows his humility and his desire to always prove himself. Players like him have something more than everyone else, and I am not just referring to the technical rate, they have a different mentality. He is the first to arrive at training sessions, he never spares himself, he is an example for all his teammates.”
The second half of the season had told a very different story, however. Vardy had stopped due to injury, missing several crucial games at the most delicate moment in the salvation race, and his last goal before the long fast was on Jan. 8, in the 2-2 draw against Cagliari. Cremonese, meanwhile, had slipped into the relegation zone, picking up just nine points in 12 games after a brilliant start. Only in the season’s finale had Vardy returned to scoring, netting the go-ahead goal in the 3-0 win over Pisa on the 36th day – his first goal after four months of abstinence – in a match that had kept the Lombardi’s salvation hopes alive. It was a bittersweet epilogue to an experience that, according to his own words, evidently did not leave its mark in the way he had hoped.
