By KBC Associate 
Leicester City all-time Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy has said his final match for the club will be “really sad” after announcing he will leave the Foxes at the end of the season.
City captain Vardy, who signed from Fleetwood Town and was integral to one of the greatest sporting shocks of all time when Leicester won the 2015/16 top-flight title, described himself as “gutted” while announcing his exit in front of the Premier League trophy.
The 38-year-old striker has scored 198 goals in 498 appearances, including 143 in the Premier League, as well as helping Leicester win the 2020/21 FA Cup and the Championship in 2014 and 2024.
Vardy leaving Leicester: When is his last game?
In the message to Leicester fans, Vardy said the club would “always, always have a massive place in my heart” but called the timing “right”.
“I’ve spent 13 unbelievable years at this club, with lots of success and some downs,” he reflected. “The majority have all been highs. It’s finally time to call it a day, which I’m devastated about it.”
Leicester have two home games remaining before Vardy’s departure, facing Southampton on May 3 and Ipswich Town on May 18 (both 15:00 BST).
“[My last game will] be a really sad day,” he told Leicester’s website. “It’s something that I’ve thought about and spoken about with my family. I think it’s time.
“Good things come to an end. It’s going to be one of those emotional days. Who knows which way that can go? If you ask anyone, I’m not really an emotional guy.
“Nothing like that ever comes across with me but, when you’ve been somewhere for so long and it is time to say goodbye, you just never know what your personal reaction is going to be.”
Jamie Vardy clubs: Leicester ‘family’
Having been released by Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager, Vardy spent time with Stocksbridge Park Steels before making his name at Halifax Town.
After a prolific period at Fleetwood – then a non-league side – Vardy joined Leicester for £1 million in May 2012. “Being here so long, the fans took me in like I was one of their own,” he said.
“You always want to repay that… it’s family. The fans have, ever since I’ve been here, stuck with us through thick and thin.
“It comes to game days, and the atmosphere’s great. And then you get the die-hard ones who are travelling to every single away game as well.
“It’s really appreciated, it really is. Nothing in the world these days is cheap, so for them to be spending their money to back the club they love and, fortunately for myself, being involved in that for all of the past 13 seasons, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Jamie Vardy stats
By Leicester’s own assessment, Vardy’s arrival was “branded as foolhardy at best, strange at worst” – but his 16 goals helped the club return to the Premier League the following season.
A 24-goal total in that remarkable 2015/16 season, when Leicester had been 5,000/1 to win the Premier League, was the first of seven successive campaigns in which Vardy would hit double figures in the top flight.
Vardy names his all-time LCFC XI 👀 pic.twitter.com/yW7Hw2MwGG
— Leicester City (@LCFC) April 24, 2025
On November 28 2015, Vardy broke current Leicester manager Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record by scoring in 11 straight Premier League games with one against the team for whom the Dutchman achieved the feat, Manchester United.
Among his litany of other highlights, Vardy helped Leicester reach the 2016/17 Champions League quarter-finals, the 2020/21 Europa League round of 32 and the 2021/22 Conference League semi-finals.
Jamie Vardy goals: Championship to Premier League
Vardy scored 20 goals last season as Leicester won the Championship and has seven goals and three assists in this season’s Premier League, with only nine English players outscoring him.
Leicester are second-bottom of the table and were relegated with five games to spare, causing Vardy to apologise to supporters on social media earlier this week.
Jamie Vardy, a Premier League and @LCFC icon. pic.twitter.com/2rREJz3b1K
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 24, 2025
“No words I have can ever express my feelings of anger and sadness with the way this season has gone,” he said. “There are no excuses.
“This season has been nothing but miserable and for me personally, a total embarrassment. It hurts and I know you’re feeling it too.”
Leicester City: Vardy ‘special’
Leicester called Vardy their “greatest ever player”, with chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha describing the club’s all-time third-highest scorer as “unique”.
“He is a special player and an even more special person,” said Srivaddhanaprabha. “He holds a place in the hearts of everyone connected to Leicester City.
“He certainly has my deepest respect and affection. I am endlessly grateful for everything he has given to this football club.”
143 – Jamie Vardy has scored 143 Premier League goals for Leicester City; only Harry Kane (213 for Tottenham Hotspur), Sergio Agüero (184 for Manchester City), and Thierry Henry (175 for Arsenal) have scored more with 100% coming for a single club. Icon. pic.twitter.com/tLYBPQC5uW
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 24, 2025
Jamie Vardy England record
An England debutant in 2015, Vardy scored seven goals in 26 international appearances, including five in 10 games in 2016.
Substitute Vardy scored England’s equaliser in their 2-1 win over Wales at Euro 2016 and was part of the squad at the Fifa 2018 World Cup, although he said he “could have helped a bit more if I had more minutes” after a brief appearance from the bench in the semi-final defeat to Croatia.
“When you get selected, you want to be playing,” Vardy explained after manager Gareth Southgate tried to change his decision to retire from international football after the tournament.
“If you’re playing week in, week out for your club, you want to be going to England to play as well.
“And if it’s not happening, then for me personally now, at this age, it’s better to be at home, spending that time with my family and training with my club, preparing for the next game after the international break.”