Jamie Vardy From Nowhere My Story

The Sunday Times Bestseller and Number 1 Sport Book of 2016 'A tale that's truly inspirational' The Sun An ordinary lad from Sheffield, Jamie Vardy has become known as an against-the-odds footballing hero the world over. Yet a few years ago, things couldn’t have been any more different. Rejected as a teenager by his boyhood club, Jamie thought his chance was gone. But from playing pub football and earning £30 a week at Stocksbridge Park Steels, while still working in a factory, his off-the-cuff performances saw him rise. Jamie had a wild and turbulent youth, but football became his saving grace and, once he filled his boots with goals at FC Halifax Town and Fleetwood Town, he moved to Leicester City. After the miracle of surviving relegation, the team of unlikely outsiders bonded together to achieve the unthinkable: Jamie set the record as the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League matches and Leicester beat odds of 5000-1 to become champions. Jamie has now been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, firmly establishing himself as one of England’s leading goal scoring footballers. Not forgetting his roots, however, he has set up the V9 Academy in a bid to find the next big talent from non-league football. Defying all expectations, this is the story of the boy from nowhere who reached the top in his own unflinching, honest words.

THE INCREDIBLE AS-IT-HAPPENED STORY OF LEICESTER CITY’S MARCH TO PREMIER LEAGUE VICTORY In August 2015 bookmakers priced Leicester at 5000-1 to win the Premier League – the same odds as Elvis being found alive. On 2 May 2016, the impossible happened – Leicester won, to ecstatic celebrations in the city and around the world. Relive this remarkable season with Rob Tanner, the Leicester Mercury ’s chief football writer, from the great escape of 2015 to the curtain-closer at Stamford Bridge, via Ulloa’s last-gasp winner at Norwich and Vardy’s stunning volley against Liverpool. Detailing the key matches and turning points, Tanner’s book tells the inside story of Leicester City’s heroic year of triumph – and the players who under Claudio Ranieri’s inspired leadership became the most unlikely champions in football history.

"A few years ago, it would have been a brave man who bet on Jamie Vardy becoming one of the most feared strikers in football. Too small to play, too slight to mix it, earning so little that he was being forced out of the game he loved, the odds could not have been longer. In 2007, Vardy was playing non-League football at Stocksbridge Park Steels, earning GBP30 per game and supplementing it with a factory job so dire that his back almost gave out. Having been released by Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager, the indignity was compounded as Vardy was forced to wear an electronic tag after an assault outside a pub. He would frequently have to ask to be substituted and run home to avoid breaking his curfew. A lesser man would have been broken. Eight years later, after a meteoric rise through the football ranks, Jamie Vardy squared his shoulders against all the naysayers and set the Premier League on fire. By the time Christmas of 2015 rolled around, he had scored in 11 consecutive games for Leicester City, breaking Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy's twelve year old record in the process. In The Boy From Nowhere, bestselling sports writer Frank Worrall traces how Jamie Vardy went from playing in a muddy field in Sheffield to being signed by the Foxes for a non-league record of GBP1 million, winning the Championship and terrorising Premier League defences in the process. A real-life rags-to-riches tale that every boy up and down the country dreams of, this is the incredible true story of Jamie Vardy, the boy who came from nowhere to the very top."--Publisher's description.

“The odds of the Foxes winning the Premier League at the start of the season were the same as the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster being proven to exist, Christmas being the warmest day of the year in England or Barack Obama playing cricket for England after he left the Oval Office.” —ESPN On March 21, 2015, Leicester City lost their sixth game in eight matches. Without a victory for two months, they were rock bottom of the English Premier League, heading for certain relegation to the lower division, and about to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime financial bonanza of TV money and opportunity. As usual, London and Manchester would clean up, the rich would get richer, and the hopes of the small, overlooked, multicultural city would sink. But Leicester started to win. They stayed up; and in the new season they kept on winning. Favorites for relegation, rank outsiders as potential champions (their 5000—1 odds were the longest in the world for any major sporting event), their entire squad had been assembled for less than the cost of a single player for Manchester City. Still, they beat Manchester City and Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea: the most incredible cast of written-offs, grafters, misfits, and journeymen came together for the season of their lives. This is the story every underdog dreams of, every small town with a much larger, more affluent neighbor hopes for, and a triumph that defies logic and expectation.

The story of one of the most recognisable and successful players in world football. Didier Drogba is renowned for his heading ability, sharp shooting and sheer strength. He has played for his native Ivory Coast and for clubs in France, China and Turkey, but it is as a Chelsea striker that he is best known. His feats with Chelsea have made him a cult hero among supporters. In Didier Drogba's honest and revealing autobiography he will talk about life as an immigrant in Paris, the importance of his education and how finding success later than most professional footballers has kept him grounded. In 2012 Didier was voted Chelsea's greatest ever player. He talks from a privileged behind-the-scenes position about tactics and how he felt mentally and physically as well as anecdotes from the dressing room. Didier provides unique insight into important and controversial matches from the first trophy he won with them in 2005 to the Premier League title a decade later; as well as what persuaded him to stay when he was at his lowest ebb. Away from football Drogba has been widely applauded for his involvement in trying to broker peace in the Ivorian civil war - he is a UN Goodwill Ambassador and does a huge amount of work with the Didier Drogba Foundation - Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. Go behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge and find out about life on and off the field for this humble Chelsea hero.

THE FIRST AND ONLY AUTOBIOGRAPHY FROM REAL MADRID GALÁCTICO AND WORLD CUP SUPERSTAR LUKA MODRIC. 'Enthralling.' – Oliver Holt, Mail on Sunday 'Awesome' – Match Magazine 'Solemn, soulful and occasionally romantic' – Alyson Rudd, The Times 'an illuminating insight into the career of one of the greatest players in the modern game' – Late Tackle 'On a level with the great midfield players of the last 20 years.' - Sir Alex Ferguson, CBE For the first time, Real Madrid galáctico and Croatian legend Luka Modric tells the story of his journey from a childhood in his war-torn homeland to becoming a serial UEFA Champions League winner and one of the most celebrated footballers in the world. Regarded as one of the great midfield players of the last 20 years, Luka reveals the difficulties of growing up during the Croatian War of Independence and his beginnings as a footballer. The FIFA World Cup finalist sets the record straight regarding key moments at Dinamo Zagreb, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid; he gives us intimate insights into his treasured home life; and he brings us his personal account of his career peak – Croatia's dramatic path to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final. What were his thoughts during decisive matches? What was his relationship with key players and coaches? What is the inner determination that keeps him on the pitch? What does it take to become the best footballer in the world? Luka was consistently underestimated in his early career, but through grit and determination he has defied the expectations of everyone who doubted him, and reached the ultimate heights of world football. This is Luka Modric in his own words.

There's a reason we are drawn to the incredible story of Jamie Vardy's rise from non-league football to become a record-breaking Premier League and England international goalscorer...he's allowed us to dream. In this age of multi-millionaire, Maserati-driving, cosseted footballers, the Leicester City striker is someone we can relate to. He's not so different from the lads we all knew who liked a Saturday night out, worked in a dead-end job and had a talent on the ball that wasted away as age took away any hopes they may have had of playing professionally. The difference is that Vardy did make it against the odds in an historic season with a fairytale team that started out as 5,000-1 underdogs and beat the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal to win the Premier League. Author David Gardner, a senior writer for football.com, goes behind the scenes to reveal the secrets behind Leicester City's miracle season...and how the party started for Jamie Vardy, from the court-imposed electronic tag he used as an ankle guard and his naked training runs all the way to his scoring streak, his WAG wife and his Hollywood future.

In a world where so many books by and about footballers are little more than bland PR exercises, Full Timebreaks the mould decisively. Stripping away the facade of what we think life must be like for an international football star, Paul Kimmage reveals a different story when it comes to Irish footballer Tony Cascarino. Scarred by his childhood, haunted by indiscretion and troubled by a secret from his past, Cascarino is strugglng to find answers as he speeds towards the most terrifying juncture in sport: the end. As Cascarino opens up abot his fears,crippling loss of confidence and sexual indiscretion, no wonder The Timesvoted it one of the Top Ten football books of all time, and Eamon Dunply said of it: 'If it were fiction this book could win the Booker Prize.'