Part of the Netflix Untold series, the Jamie Vardy story took a very long time to get to our screens. It’s been over a decade since he beat 5000:1 odds and put Leicester City FC at the top of the Premier League.
But in a way, this is a perfect time to release his story, which is an incredibly uplifting tale of a man who could have drowned his talent in alcohol had it not been for his wife Rebekah and Nigel Pearson, his first coach at Leicester. Vardy’s success is a good example of how you can become what other people help you believe.
An Underdog Story
At age 10, Jamie joined the Sheffield United Academy, but he was cut in the 16s for being too small. He worked in a factory full time but continued to play non-league football. His weekends were drinking and partying while still living at home. His friends nicknamed him Sick Note because he so often called in sick on Mondays.
He went from the 8th division Stocksbridge Park Steels to the 7th division Halifax, when agent John Morris took over his career. Jamie decided to quit his job and commit to becoming a pro. He went to the 5th division Fleetwood, where he played so well that 3 Championship clubs wanted him mid-season. When Leicester City signed Vardy, he was already/almost 25.
Nigel Pearson was the manager and saw Jamie’s potential, even though he lacked professionalism, lived on pizza, Pringles and Red Bull, and was self-destructive. As Vardy struggles to transition from 5th to 2nd division, Pearson doesn’t let him give up. What also helps is that Vardy meets Rebekah, a beautiful barmaid with a young son. The documentary makes it sound like she is a stabilizing influence and practically a therapist for Vardy; she gets him to slow down his partying. And she gets pregnant right away.
As Jamie cleans up his act, he starts scoring. Leicester get 102 points and are promoted to the EPL. When they get to the EPL, in what’s called “The Great Escape”, Leicester go on a tear from bottom of the table to finish 14th in their first year.
In the 2015-2016 season, Pearson is sacked, and Claudio Ranieri is brought in. It’s Jamie’s second season in the EPL, and he becomes a scoring machine and surpasses Ruud Von Nistelrooy’s record with 11 consecutive goal-scoring games. The documentary preserves the excitement of that odds-against achievement, and yes it is true, the whole world wanted Leicester to win the Premier League that year. Reliving that climb is pretty darn exciting.
Fodder for other movies
Looking for other soccer movies to make? In May-2016, Barney Ronay of the Guardian noted that: “In the past 55 years Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town have won the title the season after being promoted.”
One word to describe Jamie Vardy
In his Guardian article, Barney Ronay described Vardy as late-blooming, whippet-thin, and scaldingly-quick. In the film, the tone is set by the opening joke, which asks interviewees and Jamie himself for one word to describe him: speed, aggression, goals, loyal, good friend, legend, incredible, and twat. Guess which word Jamie came up with.
The Soccer
The film has many game snippets of Vardy’s best goals and the march to the title. They also include videos of the party at Jamie’s house, where the team watched Chelsea and Tottenham draw, thereby cementing Leicester’s title win.
One thing I felt lacking was the scant interview of Manager Claudio Ranieri, and little mention of PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez, or Japanese teammate Shinji Okazaki. The Leicester City interviewees consist of captain Wes Morgan, Marc Albrighton, and Andy King. The film itself stresses how that record season came about because of concerted teamwork in a team environment, led by Jamie’s focus on scoring. But I remember watching Leicester games and being enthralled by Mahrez and Okazaki, so leaving them out of the film felt a bit exclusionary.
In Conclusion
At the time, I never followed all the problems that Jamie suffered (sometimes self-inflicted) during their EPL-winning season. That he kept scoring goals despite those troubles is downright mind-boggling.
The documentary also leaves out the problems that happened after 2016, such as the 2018 death of Thai owner/chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash on the stadium grounds. And then, Rebekkah’s 2019 Wagatha Christie lawsuit with Colleen Rooney. Those incidents perhaps delayed any Jamie Vardy film for years.
Adrian Buchart, screenwriter of Goal, had announced a biopic in 2016, but it appears that after Wagatha, storytellers waited for a better ending. For example, could Jamie win a trophy with England — but he stepped away from international play in 2018 at age 32. There was also talk of a docuseries following Jamie during his last year at Leicester. In the end, this documentary film focused on the underdog part of Jamie’s story and pretty much truncates after the EPL title.
As of this review, 39 year old Jamie is still playing in the Serie A.
8 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 8
Resources:
- Released: 2026-05-12 (Netflix)
- IMDB
- 1 hr 30 mins
- Director: Jesse Vile (also see his website)
- Stars: Jamie Vardy , Rebekah Vardy
- Watch the Trailer
- The Untold series WIKI
