Like Jamie, I was rejected at 16. . .so why do clubs drop talented kids who don’t measure up?
HUNDREDS of footballers would have played non-League matches this weekend. I’ve been one of them, at the start of my career with Tow Law Town and at the end with Worksop.
When you’re coming through the ranks, you always feel as though you could do a job at a higher level; you feel as though you’re as good as what is out there in your
Chris
WADDLE position, if only you could get that chance.
That’s why what Jamie Vardy has achieved in equalling Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record is so important. Not just for all those players striving to play at a higher level, but also for English football. It is extraordinary that he has gone from Stocksbridge Park Steels in the Northern Premier League to the Premier League and England: he has risen to match one of the great strikers of the Noughties.
Van Nistelrooy was playing at Manchester United, whereas Vardy is at Leicester, having been rejected by Sheffield Wednesday at 16, just as I was by Coventry at that age.
He was lucky to be given another opportunity, with Halifax, Fleetwood and then with Leicester. I was also fortunate to work my way back into the game with Tow Law Town and ended up playing in the European Cup final with Marseille and a World Cup semifinal with England.
It shows that we are far too quick to judge a player at 16, especially in England where there is still a strong bias towards strength and size. When Coventry rejected me, I was so disillusioned with the game and convinced that it wasn’t going to happen for me that I ended up playing in goal for Pelaw Juniors on the Gateshead council estate where I grew up.
I believe there is a lot of talent out there that still gets discarded at 16. We need to educate people in the way to make choices, because size and physicality is still the criteria we use but ability never changes. In the years from being rejected to signing for Newcastle I had gone from 5ft 4in to 5ft 11in and all of a sudden people were saying: ‘Oh, he looks a player’ and knocking on my door again. But my ability hadn’t changed.
As it was, I feel I had a great grounding in the game, which I wouldn’t have changed. The team spirit in non-League is like nowhere else and there is a bit more honesty about players.
Now Vardy has joined players such as Les Ferdinand, Garry Birtles, Ian Wright, Stuart Pearce, John Barnes and Chris Smalling who have gone from non-league to play for England.
But he’s 29 so it’s been a 10-year journey to get to the point where he’s considered a top talent.
I love his attitude: he plays to his strengths of pace and energy and uses them to the full and if everyone did that, football would be a much easier game for coaches.
He’s a bit of throwback. Coming from the non-League, he plays that game where you knock it over the head of the full-back for the centre forward to spin down the side and get on the ball.
Leicester are perfect for him. Because they are defending a lot, there is a lot of space to run into when they pick the ball up on the counter. If he were to move to a bigger club he might find it more difficult when playing for a team who dominate possession, as defences sit a bit deeper.
Right now though, he will be full of confidence as he’s going through one of those career-defining spells which strikers can have. He deserves the plaudits which he has worked so hard to achieve. English football should celebrate him. And learn a few lessons from his success.