10 STEPS TO THE TOP...

1 Stocksbridge Park Steels, in the eighth tier, resurrected a career that looked over before it had started when he was 16.

‘When I got released by Sheffield Wednesday, the club I’d supported all my life, it made me think football wasn’t for me.’

2 An electronic tag and curfew for six months after an assault conviction did nothing to help his progress.

‘Someone was taking the p*** out of a mate for wearing a hearing aid. They started attacking him and I wasn’t going to let it happen. If the away games were too far, I could only play an hour. It was a case of hoping we were winning, jump over the fence and straight in my parents’ car to make sure I was home by 6pm.’

3 At Halifax in the Northern Premier League, he supplemented his £300 weekly wage with shifts making medical splints.

‘We were constantly lifting the moulds into the oven. They were so heavy. Thirty an hour takes its toll. My back was just hanging off. I left and four days later I was full-time at Fleetwood. I feel lucky.’

4 The practical joker always had the recipe for success by adding spark off the pitch as Fleetwood won promotion and the Conference title.

‘On the chef’s birthday, I wrapped his car in clingfilm with all the food from the day before in it. He wasn’t too impressed.’

5 His animated goal celebrations are familiar to fans, but he once almost caused a riot.

‘In my year at Fleetwood we played at Luton and were winning 1-0 at half-time, I’d dinked the keeper and celebrated a bit mad. Their fans were rocking the tunnel and their players were trying to get hold of one of our strikers. The police told us if we were going to start a riot they’d lock us up.’

6 Former boss Nigel Pearson swung the £1million deal for Vardy to join Leicester, a record fee for a non-League player.

‘I met the gaffer and that was that. Nigel told me he wanted me to come — and that was enough for me.’

7 He doesn’t look like a quitter now, but it was a different story in his first Championship season. ‘

I wasn’t quite prepared for how big a step up it was. I wasn’t equipped for it at first and it affected my confidence. I did [nearly give up].’

8 Vardy’s goals won Leicester promotion but he announced his arrival to the Premier League with a man-of-thematch display in the 5-3 win over Manchester United.

‘I’m just a pest. That’s all I’ve ever been. I don’t know how to play any differently. I just go straight at them.’

9 His exploits in Leicester’s great escape saw Roy Hodgson call him up for England — but it was not without confusion.

‘I was in a shop reading a text from an unrecognised number and thought: “Someone is taking the p***”. I thought it was one of the lads winding me up.’

10 And as he reflects on his remarkable journey, it seems the dream really has come true.

‘When I was at Halifax I never thought I would reach the Conference. But from there you would never have thought there would be a move to Leicester and now England. Massive dreamland.’