Vardy's Crazy Pre-Match Routine

Few players in the football world have created a cult as individualised as Jamie Vardy. The 39-year-old English striker now plays for Cremonese in Serie A in the twilight of his career; but the real legend was written with Leicester City's 5000-1 odds Premier League title in 2015-16. A hidden part of that legend came to light this week in the pages of L'Equipe. Ben Chilwell, Strasbourg's left-back, gave an interview starting with the words "A pre-match routine that struck me the most? Jamie Vardy, obviously! It's not really something to be recommended." The rest is enough to drive the physiology laboratories of football mad.

The picture Chilwell painted is simple but striking. "He would drink four cans of Red Bull in an hour," said the Strasbourg defender. "On the eve of a match, he would drink wine at the hotel, beers too. He hardly slept." A pause is needed here to add: Vardy was not the only actor on this scene. Chilwell gave this detail: "He would come knocking on my door around 3 a.m. to wake me up. He's crazy. But then he would go out and score hat-tricks. I don't know how his body does it; he's just built differently."

In evaluating this statement, it is necessary to remember Vardy's own words. The former England national team striker had previously confessed in newspapers and in his autobiography: "Yes, I smoke and I drink three cans of Red Bull a day, the medical staff are aware." This figure is already high for an elite athlete. But Chilwell's account paints a completely different picture: on match day, Vardy's habit goes above these three cans, with four more potentially added in a one-hour window. So one could assume he took more than 500 mg of caffeine in just one hour before taking to the field — beyond the standards of modern sports scientists.

This routine emerged despite all the success won in Vardy's career. In the 2015-16 season's Premier League championship for Leicester, Vardy scored 24 goals and broke Ruud van Nistelrooy's record by scoring in 11 consecutive matches. He spent 13 seasons at the same club, scored 200 goals in 500 matches; he also embraced the FA Cup and Community Shield. In 2021-22, the player whom Leicester supporters sang "our number nine" about is one of the most exceptional career stories in modern football. His transfer to Cremonese at age 39 is another chapter of this story — he left Leicester last year and embarked on a new adventure in Italy.

The real message of Chilwell's interview perhaps lies in this sentence: "I don't know how his body does it." Every detail of modern football is tied to GPS bands, sleep tracking, nutrition planning, and scientific recovery protocols. Vardy, on the other hand, is spoken of as the exception who reached the peak of his career and remained there for a long time with a lifestyle completely contrary to this standard. The Strasbourg left-back put this contradiction on the court in the interview where he compared it to his own routine of listening to Olivia Dean's new album to prepare himself before Ligue 1. In the same interview, Chilwell stated that his own style was very different — music, calm sleep, healthy meal plan.

There is also an interesting comparison: among other big names in football history, there have been players with extraordinary lifestyles from Diego Maradona to Ronaldinho. Vardy stands in this list as the only "elite performance" example of modern Premier League living with smoke and caffeine. His 1.78-metre height, his apparently weak muscular build, but his speed and instinct on the pitch lead to him being read as a "physical mystery" — this is probably what Chilwell meant by "built differently."

Vardy did not officially respond to this interview in February 2026. The English striker, continuing the Serie A season with Cremonese, may have moved to a new lifestyle in Italy; it also seems professionally impossible for a 39-year-old player to maintain the same routine. But that story from the Leicester years is now gaining legend status with Chilwell's account: four Red Bulls in an hour, wine-beer at the hotel on match eve, a striker who didn't sleep until 3:30 a.m., and a legend who went out and scored hat-tricks.

To summarise in a paragraph: Vardy reversed football science every day during his Leicester years. Now Chilwell's account adds another sentence to the player's personal mythology. Perhaps years from now, these statements will form a chapter of football anthropology: "How did a player who did the opposite of every requirement in professional sports play 500 matches and score 200 goals?"

Source: L'Equipe

Image: www.sheffieldunited.news