Leicestershire

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Not every chapter of Jamie Vardy's story at Leicester City was a happy one.

The season after Premier League glory brought Champions League football to the King Power stadium. And it was on the way back from a European tie that title-winning boss Claudio Ranieri was sacked.

In episode four of BBC Radio Leicester's podcast series on the striker – Havin' a party: The Jamie Vardy story – co-host and former Foxes winger Marc Albrighton talks about the backlash that some of the Foxes' highest profile players dealt with afterwards.

The tragedy of the helicopter crash at Leicester City's King Power stadium in 2018, that killed the club's chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four other people, is also part of this agonising chapter in the club's history.

A spotlight is also put on the off-field controversy that the striker was dragged into in later years when his wife Rebekah was accused by Coleen Rooney, the wife of former England captain Wayne Rooney, of leaking private stories to a tabloid newspaper.

What followed was to become known as the Wagatha Christie trial.

It only added to Vardy becoming a target of abuse from rivals fans during matches, but Albrighton explained just how much his team-mate enjoyed coming up with "the final say" with a goal and passionate celebration.

The episode concludes with Leicester lifting the FA Cup for the first time in their history in 2021 – which was yet another cherished chapter in the Foxes story that Vardy helped write.

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It started with a record-breaking goal-scoring spree from Jamie Vardy and ended with the most unlikely of Premier League title wins to the tune of an Italian opera.

Yep, there is nothing more surreal than the Foxes 5,000-1 top-flight triumph of 2015-16, which is the focus of the third episode of BBC Radio Leicester's podcast series - Havin' a party: The Jamie Vardy story.

Italian manager Claudio Ranieri was brought to the King Power Stadium and wasn't a universally popular appointment as Nigel Pearson's replacement at the time.

He was known as 'the Tinkerman' for how often he rotated his Chelsea side when previously at the helm of the London club.

At Leicester, he was a dream weaver for transforming the Foxes from relegation escapologists into English champions for the first time.

And it was Vardy, who earned his first England cap in 2015, who led the way with his 24 league goals.

So prolific was the then 29-year-old that he scored in a record 11 consecutive Premier League games.

Leicester City fans, as well as Vardy's former team-mates Marc Albrighton, Danny Simpson and Gary Taylor-Fletcher, as well as former Foxes striker turned BBC Radio Leicester co-commentator Matt Piper, reflect on the title-winning season and the striker's influence.

Gary Lineker, the ex-Leicester City and England forward who was then the BBC's Match of the Day host, also features in the story of a remarkable season that ended with Italian singer Andrea Bocelli singing at the King Power Stadium during their trophy lift.

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Thirteen years, 500 appearances and 200 goals ago, Jamie Vardy arrived at Leicester City as a record-breaking signing.

He became the first £1m non-league footballer when he was brought to the King Power Stadium from Fleetwood in 2012.

The second episode of BBC Radio Leicester's podcast series – Havin' a party: The Jamie Vardy story – focuses on how the striker came to grips with the huge step up with Leicester City.

He leapt from the fifth tier of English football to the second when he joined the then Championship side.

Vardy's former Foxes team-mates Neil Danns, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Conrad Logan as well as ex-goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell and a number of supporters share their memories of what it was like to see the forward get used to life in the Championship before taking the step up to the Premier League in 2014.

Marc Albrighton, who played alongside Vardy when Leicester won the Premier League title and FA Cup in later years, is co-host of the podcast and talks about the Foxes' narrow escape from relegation in 2015 and how it would set them up for future glories.

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From international debuts to first goals for their countries, here's what you might have missed over the weekend.

Leicester City midfielder Kasey McAteer scored his first goal for the Republic of Ireland on Friday in what was his maiden start for the side.

The Foxes academy graduate got on the end of the goalkeeper's parry to put his side ahead before Senegal equalised in the 82nd minute for a 1-1 draw.

Ipswich Town midfielder Jack Taylor also made his first international start for the Republic in the friendly.

Nineteen-year-old Birmingham City Under-21s player Menzi Mazwi made his debut for Zimbabwe during their 2-0 loss to South Africa in the COSAFA Cup on Saturday, coming on as a substitute in the 77th minute.

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With the Jamie Vardy party at Leicester City now over, the striker's remarkable journey to becoming the greatest Foxes goalscorer of all time has been chronicled by BBC Radio Leicester.

Former winger Marc Albrighton, who won the Premier League title and lifted the FA Cup alongside the England forward, joins Leicester City commentator Owynn Palmer-Atkin in hosting the five-part series.

Episode one starts at the beginning of Vardy's remarkable football journey and the disappointment of being released by boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager.

His time playing for a college team after that was followed by a life-shaping spell at Stocksbridge Park Steels – where he played for six months with an electronic tag on his ankle after being convicted of assault.

A 6:00pm curfew that was also imposed on Vardy meant the first two occasions that Neil Aspin went to try watch the forward during his time as Halifax boss, he wasn't there because both matches were evening kick-offs.

"From first seeing him, I knew he was a player we had to sign," Aspin said.

It cost the West Yorkshire club £15,000 to get a player that would go on to score 145 Premier League goals and net seven times in 26 internationals for England.

Aspin also tells the story of Vardy coming close to scoring a hat-trick of hat-tricks in one week of his one season with Halifax, which earned him a move to then non-league side Fleetwood Town.

It was his golden-boot winning exploits with the Cod Army, which helped them win promotion to the English Football League for the first time in 2011-12, that made Vardy the first non-league player to cost £1m when he then joined Championship club Leicester.

Steve Walsh, Leicester City's former head of recruitment, talks about how they landed the future star's signature when Southampton had also been "in for him".