(Photo via Pixabay)
In a series exclusive to Semi-Professional, we take a look at the players who began in the lower echelons of the football pyramid and climbed their way to the top.
There is no doubt that talent is what separates the best from the rest, with academies up and down the country full of future world-beaters. Top-level English football however is not just filled with academy graduates, with a rise in former non-league players representing at the pinnacle of the game.
It is only fair to begin the list with one of the most well-known individual footballing fairytales, none other than Jamie Vardy’s rise which saw the Sheffielder taste Premier League glory.
After being involved in Sheffield Wednesday’s youth set up, Vardy found himself released at 16 and not long after playing for Stocksbridge Park Steels earning just £30 a week.
Impressive performances on the pitch would see Vardy rise through the lower steps of the football pyramid, eventually joining step 3 side FC Halifax Town in 2010 aged 23 where he hit the back of the net 25 times in his debut season.
Vardy would then find himself at Fleetwood Town in step 1 just a year later, bagging 31 goals as the side took home the league title.
He would then go on to break the non-league transfer record after signing for Championship side Leicester City the following year for a fee worth around £1 million.
After winning the Championship in 2014, the Foxes sealed promotion to top-flight football with more to come for the talisman.
The Foxes would go on to unexpectedly win the Premier League in the 2015/2016 season, seeing Vardy complete an impressive journey up the football pyramid. Leicester’s title charge also saw personal accolades come Vardy’s way however, breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record for scoring in consecutive top-flight matches, and was voted the Premier League Player of the Season and FWA Footballer of the Year in the same season.
Vardy continued to smash records, becoming the oldest Premier League Golden Boot Winner in the 2019/2020 season. Glory in the 2021 FA Cup final further cemented his name in the record books, where he became the first player to have played in every round in the competition from the preliminary stages to the final.
It would be rude to ignore Vardy’s accolades on the international stage. After being released from the Owls at just 16 years of age, Vardy would end up becoming an established player for the English national side, bagging 7 goals in 26 appearances and appearing in both a European campaign and a World Cup.
Jumping forward to the present day, the 37-year-old is still at Leicester City having just completed a short season-long stint back in the Championship before winning the division and securing promotion back to the Premier League.