Jamie Vardy's New Chapter at Burnley: Aged 39 and Still Competing
Jamie Vardy’s summer of 2026 began with a full stop. No club, no league, no next chapter. Just a 39-year-old Premier League title winner walking away from Cremonese after their drop out of Serie A, his Italian adventure over almost as quickly as it had begun.
From there, the rumours wrote themselves.
Leicester? The romantic option. A return to the club where he went from non-league to champion, riding to the rescue of a side now marooned in League One after back-to-back relegations. The idea was floated, chewed over, debated. Then parked. Emotion stayed in the stands. Vardy chose patience instead, waiting for a project that felt right rather than simply familiar.
Wrexham? That was the blockbuster pitch. The perfect character for the next season of “Welcome to Wrexham”, turning up at the Racecourse Ground to join Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s ongoing football drama. Many could see it: Vardy, the ultimate underdog story, dropped straight into Hollywood’s favourite lower-league script.
There was something in it, too, according to his former Leicester team-mate Danny Simpson.
Speaking to GOAL on behalf of Free Bets, Simpson said: “I think there was something there. There were a few things that were there. I did speak to him.”
The pull of the cameras, though, lost out to the pull of the Championship. Burnley stepped in, armed with a 12‑month contract and the backing of an ownership group that includes NFL great JJ Watt among its investors. Vardy signed on, trading the idea of being Wrexham’s leading man for the grind of a promotion chase and the chance to face Reynolds and McElhenney from the other side of the touchline.
Simpson had another destination in mind entirely.
“You know what I wanted? I know it's happened now but I would have liked to have seen him go to Everton,” he admitted. “You need a striker, 20 minutes left in a game, coming on for [Thierno] Barry. Anyway, that didn't happen. That's just what I was thinking.”
The admiration, though, is crystal clear.
“He’s still fit, he’s still sharp, he’s still going to get you goals. There’s nothing on him, his weight and stuff. I hope he starts getting more games and getting goals because that’s Jamie Vardy. He’s always got another story, another chapter.”
That next chapter will unfold with the clock very much visible. Vardy’s deal at Turf Moor takes him past a landmark date: January 11, when he turns 40. Reach that birthday still competing in the Championship and he joins a rare group of outfield players who have kept going at a high level into their fourth decade, rubbing shoulders in that sense with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Gianluigi Buffon and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
For Simpson, the tale isn’t done yet.
Quizzed on whether there are more pages to turn in the Vardy fairytale, especially as the striker branches out into YouTube work and Bundesliga match streaming, Simpson said: “I think he has got more in him.
“I think it'll come down to how he's managed with Tuesday and Saturday. I remember when he did that at Leicester, when he got them promoted. He scored 20-plus goals. He looks after himself but he needs managing right because it's tough to do that, especially in the Championship. It's up to how the manager manages him. As long as he's still hungry, which he is, he could do another year after.
“He’s also looking at the future and doing his own little bits, which is only right to do by the way. I hope he keeps going because there’s only a few of us left from that [Leicester title-winning] team that are still playing.”
Hunger has never been Vardy’s problem. Effort certainly hasn’t. Burnley have only used him once so far, a 25‑minute cameo off the bench, but even that short spell came with the usual intensity. The wider picture, though, is bleak. The Clarets have stumbled badly out of the blocks, winless and stuck to the bottom of the Championship table.
Wrexham, the club he almost joined, are hardly flying either. Seven points from seven games has dulled some of the early-season buzz in north Wales. Both teams head into the international break searching for a spark, a reset, a figure to drag them up by sheer force of will.
Burnley have bet that, even at 39 and counting, Jamie Vardy can still be that man. How many chapters are left in his story will now be written in claret and blue.
