Jamie Vardy snubbed lucrative transfer to reunite with former manager after Leicester won Premier League promotion
JAMIE VARDY was offered the chance to reunite with Dean Smith this summer.
The Leicester legend, 37, scored 18 league goals last season as the Foxes secured promotion back to the top flight at the first time of asking.
Club legend Jamie Vardy has now spent 12 years at LeicesterAlamy
Dean Smith offered Vardy the chance to join him at MLS side CharlotteReuters
Shortly after winning the Championship, Leicester lost manager Enzo Maresca and star playmaker Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea.
They could have seen Vardy walk out of the exit door too had he accepted Smith’s offer to join him at MLS side Charlotte.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, Smith revealed: “I did text him [Vardy] and see if he wanted to come over to America.
“I knew that it was going to be hard once he took Leicester back to the Premier League. [I love] his enthusiasm for the game.
“He doesn’t train as much as he used to, and he won’t get as many minutes as he used to, but if he’s used right he’ll be really, really good [this season].
“You saw the goals he scored in the Championship last year.”
Smith coached Leicester for eight games at the end of the 2022/23 season as they were relegated from the Premier League.
He won just two matches in charge and left in June 2023, two months after taking the job.
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He scored 18 goals in the Championship last season
After six months unemployed, he joined Charlotte in December last year and has won 10 of 27 games, with the club sixth in the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, Vardy is set to begin his 13TH season with Leicester when they host Tottenham in their Premier League opener on Monday.
He has scored 136 goals in 307 Premier League games for the 2016 champions.
